


Collosion

by anaceattorney



Series: Please get these children therapy [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Aggressive overtures of friendship, Children are not weapons and Iruka will fight anyone who says they are, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Iruka is confused/concerned about Kakashi's parenting style, Kakashi is just confused by Iruka, Minor Character Death, Plotting, poor decisions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 55,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26921968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaceattorney/pseuds/anaceattorney
Summary: Iruka had enough to worry about with his children finally taking the chunin exams. Add the Kazekage's insane schemes, Gaara's intense, but well-intentioned attempts to befriend Leaf's jinchuriki, and a Leaf jonin who definitely should not have been trusted with children, and everything is spiraling out of control.But Iruka would do what he could to protect his children, no matter what the threat was.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Gaara & Kankurou & Temari, Gaara & Umino Iruka, Gaara & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka, Hyuuga Neji & Maito Gai | Might Guy & Rock Lee & Tenten, Rock Lee & Tenten, Rock Lee & Tenten & Uzumaki Naruto, Rookie Nine & Uzumaki Naruto, Umino Iruka & Kankuro & Temari, Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Please get these children therapy [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632886
Comments: 195
Kudos: 254





	1. Chapter 1

“The Kazekage wants to speak with you.”

“We didn’t do it,” Iruka instinctually replied, frantically thinking back to what he or the kids might have done over the past week to piss off the Kazekage. Gaara had loudly asked if destroying paintings of the Kazekage was treason and Kankuro and Temari had pulled another prank that painted half of the village bright orange, but that was honestly par for the course with them. The Kazekage had given up calling Iruka to his officer for things like that years ago. As long as the kid’s disrespect for their father and the leader of the village wasn’t too obvious and their pranks didn’t result in any injuries, the Kazekage left them to their own devices. The unstable truce had been in place for many years and Iruka doubted it would last much longer. The siblings were now genin and in taking their missions, they learned more about how the Kazekage ruled the village and found more reasons to dislike him beyond their displeasure at how he treated them and Iruka. Iruka had been half drafting coup plans for the last couple years. Pakura would be a good candidate and if he promised to do most of the paperwork for her she’d probably go along with it. She wasn’t too fond of the Kazekage either.

“You might not want to lead with that,” Scorpion said, his amused voice bringing Iruka back to the present. “And he said to come immediately.”

Iruka sighed and headed towards the door. Luckily the kids were out on a mission, so he wouldn’t have to worry about them trying to spy on the meeting. They had gotten rather good at it by now. Gaara had worked with Shukaku to find ways to make his sand eyeball less noticeable. Kankuro had crafted some small puppets that allowed him to listen from a distance. Iruka wasn’t quite sure how they worked, but he had to admit it was impressive. Temari found high, but protected, hiding spots and was the best at being subtle, which got her far. As proud as Iruka was of them, he’d rather they didn’t shatter the truce with their father by getting caught eavesdropping.

The chunin staffing the desk outside the Kazekage’s office waved him in right away. That made him even more nervous. Usually the Kazekage would make him wait for a while, even if it was unnecessary. Probably to remind Iruka the amount of power he held over him. Not that that really stopped Iruka from behaving how he wanted to, but it was routine and the Kazekage was a petty man. For him to skip that meant something big was going on.

“You asked to see me?” Iruka asked as he entered, coming to a halt a few feet in front of the Kazekage’s office.

“Yes, sit down,” he instructed. Iruka complied, watching the other man closely. “The chunin exams will take place in Leaf in a little over a month. Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro will be entering. You will accompany them,” the Kazekage stated, getting straight to the point.

Iruka hadn’t known quite what to expect when he entered the office, but that certainly was not it. They had only been a team for a few months, he had expected they would be entered in the next set of exams, at the absolute earliest. Plus, “Excuse me, sir, but isn’t it just supposed to be jonin instructors who accompany their teams?”

The Kazekage raised his eyebrow, as if questioning why Iruka thought it was his place to question his decision. “Usually yes. But given Gaara’s… special circumstances, I thought it would be best if you tagged along. No one will question what one more chunin is doing there.”

Iruka had to repeatedly remind himself that it was a bad idea to roll his eyes at the head of his village, even if he deserved it. Couldn’t he go one conversation without taking a dig at Iruka’s supposed weakness? He was perfectly happy as a chunin. He did more good in the village than taking death defying missions. Leave that to Pakura, who thought they were fun. But more importantly, “What do you want from Gaara?”

The Kazekage narrowed his eyes, “What do you mean?”

“Allowing me to accompany them will make them happy. But I don’t see a benefit in it for the village or you. Gaara hasn’t had a break-down in years. He has been completing missions without me there. He doesn’t need my supervision,” Iruka responded bluntly. “You wouldn’t do this just to keep Gaara happy, You want something from him.” Fragile peace be damned. If the Kazekage was plotting something that had the potential to hurt Iruka’s kids, he needed to know what it was. He wouldn’t just let them be used as weapons.

The Kazekage regarded him coldly, “You do not need to know that just yet. Suffice to say, the chunin exams are not all that will occur at that time. And Gaara will have an additional role to play.”

Iruka ground his teeth. He knew the Kazekage wouldn’t tell him anything more, but even that small explanation put him on edge. Whatever the Kazekage was planning wasn’t good and Iruka somehow doubted it was smart either. And his kids would be right in the middle of it. “Very well,” he said. “I will accompany them.” If he couldn’t stop whatever was about to happen, he could at least be there to do damage control and make sure his kids survived.

The Kazekage raised his eyebrow, “I was unaware I was giving you a choice in the matter.” Iruka suppressed a sigh. “You leave in three weeks time. Further details will be provided to you at a later date.” Iruka saluted and left at the dismissal. As much as he wanted to find an empty training field and punch something until his anger had drained (as he usually did after talking with the Kazekage), the kids were supposed to get back from their mission tonight and he wanted to make them a welcome home dinner. 

They had been gone for three weeks. It was their first B-rank mission and Iruka hadn’t been able to stop himself from worrying about them. He knew they were all very capable, and Gaara in particular was very hard to injure and would protect his siblings, but he couldn’t help himself. It wasn’t the longest he had gone without seeing them. A few months ago he had been sent on a mission that took almost three weeks. By the time he got back, the kids had already left for a week-long mission. Of course, it went long and Iruka had been sent on another mission before they got back. When he finally saw them after a month and a half, he had held them for a long time and fussed over how they had grown while they laughed at him. That night, Gaara had made his way into Iruka’s room to sleep, which he hadn’t done for a while. When Kankuro saw that, he went and convinced Temari that they should all have a sleepover in Iruka’s room so the two of them had brought their blankets and pillows and settled in on the floor. With all of them there with him, Iruka fell asleep far easier than he had for weeks. Luckily, that hadn’t had to go that long without seeing each other again yet.

Iruka entered the house and put on water for tea, hoping it would help him calm down. “Do you know what he is plotting?” He asked to the shadow he saw out of the corner of his eye. He had automatically raised his silencing barrier the second he had felt Scorpion enter the kitchen. He also did a quick check to make sure they were really alone

Scorpion was quiet for a minute before saying, “I am sorry but I cannot tell you much. But Iruka, please be careful.”

Iruka took a deep breath, “This plot it’s big, isn’t it? Probably stupidly dangerous too based on your reaction.”

With his mask on, Iruka couldn’t see Scorpion’s facial expression, but he could guess how worried his friend was based on the way he held himself. “Bigger than anything before and the consequences if it fails or even if it succeeds will be devastating. They’ll need you, Iruka, perhaps now more than ever.” And with that he disappeared back to the roof.

Iruka gave himself a few minutes to process what Scorpion had just told him. Just the fact Scorpion had been willing to tell him that much was an extremely bad sign. For all he might not have personally liked the Kazekage, no one could say Scorpion wasn’t loyal to him. If it wasn’t directly related to the kids Scorpion usually wouldn’t tell Iruka anything, and even then he would only make vague hints, probably weaseling his way around orders. But he had to have just broken direct orders, since the Kazekage seemed pretty intent on keeping Iruka in the dark for now. For Scorpion to do that, he must have truly believed the kids were in danger and Iruka needed to be warned. Iruka knew he couldn’t ask him to reveal anything else, he couldn’t put his friend in that position. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t find out in other ways. He’d check with Pakura when she got back from her mission and Mari when he got a chance. If that didn’t work, he would check in with some of the chunin who worked the mission desk who he had befriended over the years. They probably wouldn’t know exactly what was going on, but they would be able to tell him about the Kazekage’s behavior lately. And if he phrased it carefully enough, they wouldn’t even realize that Iruka was fishing for information.

Iruka was jolted out of his thoughts by the door being thrown open, “Iruka, we’re back,” Temari called. He hurried towards the front door to greet them. And there they were. He gave them a quick once-over, taking in Temari’s bruises, and how Kankuro was holding himself a little stiffly. Gaara, of course, looked completely uninjured. That was all he was able to see before they threw themselves at him for a hug. He laughed and held them tightly, so glad they were back safe and sound. Part of being a shinobi was knowing you could lose anyone close to you at any moment, but Iruka knew losing any of his kids would destroy him. 

“Did your mission go well?” He asked as he finally drew back.

“Yeah, we got to beat up a bunch of bandits. And Crow works so well, it’s my new favorite,” Kankuro enthusiastically told him. Iruka laughed. Kankuro said that about every new puppet he got.

“We delivered our client to her destination with minimal difficulties,” Temari reported, glaring at Kankuro.

Kankuro waved her off, “Yeah, yeah, but that’s obvious since we’re already back. Iruka wants to hear the fun parts.” Iruka tuned out their usual squabbling, since he had heard this same fight at least 6 times before. Temari was definitely the oldest sibling in that she was the most responsible and dignified. Kankuro could behave, but didn’t feel the need to when he was around the people he loved. It led to a lot of bickering about what was appropriate behavior for genin of Sand.

“Did you have a good mission, Gaara?” Iruka asked his original charge, who hadn’t let go of him yet.

Gaara nodded into his stomach, “Shukaku and I have been getting better at working together. I was able to let him take control during one of the fights, but was still able to see everything that happened, and he let me take back control when I asked without arguing.” Iruka was glad. Even just being the jinchuriki gave Gaara amazing power, but if Shukaku was actively helping, this power increased exponentially. And the more powerful Gaara was, the better he would be able to protect himself and his siblings.

“Good,” Iruka said. Addressing the man who had been standing awkwardly in the doorway for their reunion, “You know you can come in, Baki.” The jonin nodded sharply and finally walked inside. Iruka stifled a laugh. Honestly, he quite liked the kids’ jonin teacher. Baki had been respectful towards Iruka from the first time they met, which was more than he could say for many jonin. He treated the kids well and helped them develop their strengths, to the extent that he could. Iruka often wondered how exactly he was chosen to be the kids’ teacher. Baki was only a couple years older than Iruka, and while he was very strong, this was his first genin team. Iruka often felt bad for the poor man. He was very much a rule follower and was in no way prepared to wrangle Iruka’s little monsters. Within the first week, the kids had dyed Baki’s face cloth pink and the pranks didn’t stop from there. Iruka felt a little guilty for teaching them all those techniques and also telling them that anyone was far game as long as they could do it without getting caught. The first month, Baki would drop off the kids after missions or training and basically flee. After that, Iruka was slowly able to coax him to stay for dinner and eventually he stopped looking terrified whenever Iruka was in the same room. Honestly, anyone watching would be confused about which one of them was the mainly village-bound chunin and which one was one of the most promising young jonin of Sand. Iruka was idly curious just what threats Gaara had made that freaked Baki out so much. As much as his youngest might deny doing so, Iruka knew his kids and Gaara always looked a little too pleased at the sight of Baki freaking out.

“You staying for dinner?” Iruka asked. “It might be a while. I got caught up in something and haven’t had time to start anything yet.”

“I will have to decline. The Kazekage said he wanted to see me immediately after I brought them back,” Baki told him.

Iruka wondered if the Kazekage was going to tell Baki about whatever he was plotting for the chunin exams. He would certainly have to know eventually and it was obvious Baki was far more loyal than Iruka. He’d have to see if he could get anything out of him later. Baki was a strong fighter, but he was never going to be an undercover agent. He honestly wasn’t a great liar and got flustered far too easy. If other avenues of investigation didn’t pan out, Iruka might try and pry something out of him. “Some other time then. Usual time for training tomorrow?” Baki nodded and bid his farewells. 

For the next three weeks, life continued pretty much as normal. Iruka wasn’t set on any more missions and the kids only did missions within the village, focusing most of their attention on training for the chunin exams. They unsurprisingly worked very well together so had focused most of their energy on doing individual training. Iruka often attended their training sessions, helping where he could and otherwise just watching. 

Currently, Kankuro was working with Crow and a variety of poisons. Everyone made sure to keep their distance from him. Gaara and Shukaku were working on some of their more destructive moves a little ways out in the desert. Iruka couldn’t see much more than sand whipping around, but he didn’t sense any abnormal (for Gaara at least) chakra movement, so he guessed he was fine. Temari and Baki were talking, probably about wind techniques, given their gestures. This was another reason Iruka was glad Baki was the one chosen as the kids’ jonin instructor. He had been worried when the Kazekage decided that all three would become genin together. He feared Kankuro, and especially Temari, who was being held back two years, might resent their brother. He was also worried that their jonin teacher might focus all his attention on Gaara, to the detriment of the other two, or even try to destroy the bond between the siblings. He needn’t have worried.

When Temari got the news ttah they would be a team, she was quiet for a moment before declaring, “Oh good, who knows what kind of trouble you two knuckle-heads would have gotten into without me around to watch over you.” 

Kankuro had complained about being called a knuckle-head, but didn’t seem to care that he would have to wait a year longer to become a genin than most of his classmates. “Gives me more time to work on my puppeteering skills,” is all he said on the matter.

And Baki had been everything Iruka could have hoped for, even if he was such a stickler for rules. He obviously knew Gaara was the jinchuriki, but he didn’t fear Gaara the way many villagers did. He sometimes looked out of his depth on how to advise Gaara on managing his power, something Iruka definitely sympathized with, but he treated him like a genin- yelling at him when he did something dangerous and teaching him tricks to help him survive. He also took the time to help Kankuro develop skills not directly related to puppeteering. But it was obvious pretty early on that the one he connected best with was Temari. They had the same chakra nature and under Baki, Temari improved much faster than she ever had before. And as the most serious of her siblings, she learned a lot of the logistics of being a shinobi and mission-leader from Baki. Iruka was glad she had someone to teach her that. He had never had to worry about that side of things, since he was certainly never trusted to lead a mission. But it was definitely a skillset at least one of the siblings needed to develop, and Baki was a good teacher.

Iruka had had his best to uncover whatever the Kazekage was planning, but he hadn’t been able to figure it out yet. He knew he had to involve the chunin exams somehow, and was obviously big, but he couldn’t imagine just what it could be. Surely the Kazekage couldn’t be contemplating an all-out attack on Leaf or something. They had just gotten out of their war with Mist, they couldn’t take being embroiled in another one any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, it has been so long. Sorry for the wait. School, work, and everything else that is going right now are kind of kicking my ass. But as promised, here is the final part of this series. 
> 
> It's finally time for the chunin exams and everything that comes with that. Throwing all these gremlin children together in one place is going to get so chaotic. It will be great.
> 
> In case anyone is curious, this fic will mainly be written from Iruka's pov, but I will have some chapters that are from other characters'. I'll try and update every other week, but we'll see how that goes.


	2. Chapter 2

For once Iruka was glad the kids were gone when he came back from his meeting. They had a day mission within the village. Iruka hurried into the house and sank down on the floor with his back to the door. This...this was worse that he had ever even begun to imagine. Not only was the Kazekage going to get them embroiled in another war, but he wanted to use Gaara to do a significant portion of the attack. Iruka knew death and killing were a part of shinobi life and that his kids would kill eventually. Hell, Kankuro had already killed someone when one of their missions went south. Temari had been in trouble and Gaara and Baki were taking on a large group of opponents, so Kankuro used Crow to finish the fight in the quickest way he could. Even adult missing-nins were no match for his poisons. 

And he had held it together until they got back to the village. Iruka was so glad he had been in the village when they got back. Kankuro had immediately bathed, pushed his puppets to the back of his closet, and curled up next to Iruka for the rest of the night. He had been uncharacteristically quiet, but Iruka knew he needed time to process and just kept reading his book until Kankuro had spoken up, “I don’t regret it. I know they wouldn’t have thought twice before killing us, but the cry he let out as he died keeps ringing in my ears.”

“I still remember the first person I killed,” Iruka told him. “It soon after making chunin. It was a courier mission and I had the message. We were attacked and split up to make it harder for them to get the message. One of them pursued me. I knew I couldn’t take her in a straight fight. I shook her off long enough to lay down a few traps. She got careless and walked into one of my tripwires, which pulled her up by her leg. I threw a kunai and sliced her throat open. And then I ran and managed to deliver the letter. But her expression of surprise as she died stayed with me for a long time.” He pulled Kankuro even closer and dropped a kiss on the top of his head, “But this is our way of life and I don’t regret being a shinobi. For what it's worth, I am proud of you. You protected your siblings.”

Kankuro gave him the first smile he had seen from the boy all day, “It’s worth a lot. Thanks, Iruka.” He fell asleep fairly quickly after that. The nightmares continued for a while, but Kankuro bounced back rather quickly. Iruka had no doubt he would have no hesitation killing again to protect his siblings.

But the Kazekage’s plan was something completely different. Iruka had killed many times before, to protect himself or his team or even proactively before the threat could notice them. Sometimes killing was necessary, and that was just part of shinobi life. However, what the Kazekage was planning was a full-scale attack on a village that was welcoming them as guests. And Iruka knew it would not accomplish anything beyond causing a huge death toll for both sides. Leaf would be on the lookout for betrayal and while Sand’s initial attack might catch them off guard, Iruka had no doubt they would recover quickly. And then the village would have to bear the burden of the Kazekage’s actions. Leaf would be out for blood, particularly if anyone important died during the invasion. This could ruin whatever meager relationships they had with the other villages as well.

And the fact of the matter was, Iruka could not do anything to stop it. He couldn’t directly go against the orders of the Kazekage, not in any obvious way. And many shinobi had already known of the plan, and none of them had apparently dared to contradict the Kazekage, so no help there. And he couldn’t just tell Leaf about the attack. While the Kazekage might have thought Iruka had no loyalty to the village, he truly did. This was his home and he didn’t want to do anything that would put the friends he had made over the years in danger. And more than that, if something went wrong, Iruka just knew the Kazekage would hurt his kids to get back at Iruka. He might not be willing to injure Gaara as the jinchuriki, but Iruka could easily see him hurting Kankuro or Temari and removing them from Iruka’s care. 

But if Iruka did nothing, it was also likely the kids would get hurt. If not during the attack, then in the aftermath. They were the Kazekage’s children and it wasn’t uncommon for whole families to be punished for something of this magnitude. Leaf could easily demand their heads as a condition of peace. And Sand was not alone in treating their jinchuriki as less than human. They could experiment on Gaara as well. 

He made no claims of genius, but he was usually pretty good at creating plans to neutralize higher powered threats. However, this was just too much! No matter what strategy he thought up, it would have devastating consequences if something went just slightly wrong. And his kids would probably be the ones bearing the brunt of those consequences. He needed more information. Well, what he really needed was a sane leader for the village, but at this point he would settle for more information. The jonin leading the meeting he just attended was not too forthcoming. What was the timeline of the invasion? How did they plan to plot right under the noses of all the other villages? And what role did the Kazekage expect Iruka’s children, particularly Gaara, to play?

But the wall opposite him held no answers, and eventually he forced himself from his seat. He knew he wouldn’t be able to focus enough to cook anything, so he walked into the village proper to get takeout from one of the kids’ favorite restaurants. While he knew that they knew him well enough to see that he was shaken up, hopefully he could convince them he was just worried about the chunin exams. He desperately wanted to tell them everything, but he couldn’t. Even during his meltdown, he had been able to tell that the anbu on guard duty was not Scorpion. It wasn’t even a chakra signature Iruka recognized as one of their other regular watchers. And he knew they would be watched closely until they left for Leaf. He would have to keep this quiet from the kids and let them be told by whoever the Kazekage selected. He hoped Temari was quick enough to stop her brothers from obviously reacting to the news. They needed to convince the Kazekage that they were willing to play their role or at least were too scared of the consequences not to do so until Iruka could come up with a solution.

Iruka was just getting out plates when the front door burst open. “We’re back,” Kankuro called out.

“Welcome back,” Iruka called back. “How was the mission?”

Temari rolled her eyes, “It was just tracking down some jewelry that a civilian lost. She had left the window open and a bird made off with it. Nothing exciting.”

“How disappointing,” Iruka joked. “Wash up and we’ll have dinner. Baki, you staying tonight?” 

Full expecting another rejection, he was surprised when the jonin agreed to stay. 

Dinner blurred past with conversation ranging from what their worst mission was (It was telling of the kids priorities that they all ranked ones where they could have been killed as much higher than running messages for the mission desk or other “boring" village work.) to what to expect at the chunin exams.

Iruka left the kids to wash the dishes after they finished and walked Baki out. “I am glad you are coming with us,” Baki said quietly as he stood in the doorway. Iruka, who had been absentmindedly listening to the kids argue about how to divide up chores in the kitchen, jerked his head so he could meet Baki’s gaze head-on. “I will be glad to have your aid in making sure everything goes smoothly,” he continued. 

Iruka smiled, “Of course. I am happy to be of service.” Baki nodded and left for the evening and Iruka went through the motions of getting everyone into bed. Later he lay in his own bed, checking on the kids’ chakra from their rooms down the hall, needing the reassurance they were alright. He found himself feeling more hopeful than he had since he heard the Kazekage’s insane plan. Baki’s comment should have sounded completely innocuous to their anbu watcher, but Iruka had seen the look in his eyes. Baki cared about the kids and he knew this plan could destroy them. Iruka knew Baki would never directly go against the Kazekage, but the glance he had given Iruka gave him hope that if he could figure out a way to creatively interpret orders to get around that problem, Baki would help him. And more allies were always a good thing. He didn’t know who else was coming along on this disaster. He knew Pakura at least was staying in the village to stand guard, since she had taken him aside a couple weeks ago and asked him to look after Maki for her. He hoped Scorpion would accompany the group, but he wasn’t sure. He’d have to find a way to ask Mari. So the current situation was: Iruka needed to find a way to prevent the Kazekage’s awful planning from coming to fruition without anyone figuring out what he was doing or he would be killed for treason. He also needed to protect his kids, and all the kids entered in the chunin exams if possible. He knew hardly any details about the actual plan, and would be operating in a village he had never been in before. His only allies were Baki, maybe Scorpion and Mari if they came along, and the three kids he had to protect. While that was better than before tonight when he didn’t have Baki, it wasn’t great either. He had been in some tough spots before but he felt comfortable saying these were the worst odds he had ever faced. But he couldn’t give up. If he did what would happen to-

“Iruka?” Gaara poked his head inside Iruka’s room.

“Hey, sweetheart, what are you doing up?” Iruka asked, automatically moving over to give Gaara space to lay down. The Kazekage had yelled at Iruka numerous times over the years for continuing to allow Gaara and to a lesser extent, Kankuro and Temari, sleep with him when they had a rough night. Iruka had no difficulty ignoring the man’s protests. He needed Iruka enough to not get rid of him over something minor like this. Besides, this was not a sign of weakness as the Kazekage saw it. Needing reassurance was normal and they were still so young. Iruka would never shame them for needing someone to help them process their emotions and move forward.

Gaara curled up by Iruka’s side and asked, “Do you think there will be other jinchuriki at the exams?” Iruka was speechless. He was so caught up in dealing with the Kazekage’s scheming and keeping the kids safe that he overlooked the concerns the kids must have about the exams. He doubted any of them were worried about the exams themselves, since they were confident in their abilities, but it would be a new place and a lot of new people, which were not things Gaara dealt with particularly well. And the possibility of meeting another jinchuriki just added another layer on top of that.

“It’s possible,” Iruka answered slowly, trying to think through what he knew about each jinchuriki. A couple were not associated with any village, so they certainly wouldn’t be there. But Iruka honestly didn’t know much about other village’s jinchurikis. They probably wouldn’t be coming as spectators, but it was possible that one was taking the chunin exams. 

“Do you think they’d be my friend? If one of them is there, I mean?” Gaara asked. And his expression just broke Iruka’s heart. He looked so hopeful to have a friend who could truly understand him. Iruka knew he loved his siblings and liked Maki, but they just could not understand many of the things Gaara was going through. Only another jinchuriki could. 

“I don’t see why not. You’re a very good friend,” Iruka replied. “But they might be wary of opening up to you. They probably haven’t had the best of experiences with people.” As much as Iruka hated to say it, he knew he needed to. He couldn’t let Gaara set his expectations too high and be let down if whatever jinchuriki he met had been hurt too many times to open up to Gaara. 

“Like how some of the villagers won't talk to me and call me a demon when they think I cannot hear,” Gaara said.

Iruka sighed. He tried to protect Gaara from the worst of the village’s hatred, but Gaara’s sand eye let him see whatever he wanted to and Gaara was a curious child. Of course, he knew what most of the village thought of him. Even though he hadn’t had an outburst in years, people still viewed him like an exploding tag about to go off.

“Yes, like that. So whoever they are might be leery of you because of their past experiences. But don’t let that discourage you. You didn’t like Temari and Kankuro all that much at first either, remember?” Gaara nodded seriously. “But they stuck around and kept trying and now you three are near inseparable,” Iruka continued.

“And you’ll be there to help, right?” Gaara asked, despite Iruka having alreadt told him multiple times he was coming.

“Of course, although I don’t know how much help I will be,” Iruka replied.

“Everyone likes Iruka,” Gaara stated confidently. “Well everyone with any sense,” the dark look he threw in the direction of the Kazekage’s office left little doubt about who he was talking about. Iruka couldn’t help but laugh at that. “So we can show the other jinchuriki that we are nice and then we’ll become friends.”

It sounded so simple when Gaara put it like that and Iruka wished he could make reality follow that plan. Gaara deserved all the friends he wanted. But with the Kazekage’s stupid plan, whatever jinchuriki they met would probably be their enemy. And Gaara would have much bigger worries than just making friends at the chunin exams. Iruka added another factor to his plotting- try and come up with a solution that left Gaara free to focus on befriending other participants in the exams rather than worrying about the attack.

“We’ll certainly try our best,” is what he eventually ended up giving Gaara as a response. They knew each well enough at that point that Iruka could tell Gaara knew something was wrong with his answer, but Iruka just pulled him close to his chest and said, “Rest, we’ll talk more later.” Gaara settled down without any further protests and was soon snoring slightly. Iruka combed his hand through his hair, his hands shaking. He would find a way to save his children from the attack and the aftermath that followed, no matter what. These three meant more to him than anyone else in the world and no one: not the Kazekage, an enemy shinobi, or the combined forces of the other villages were going to take them from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is not going to be prepared for an aggressively friendly Gaara, but honestly, I feel like he'll roll with it pretty well.
> 
> I interpret Baki was someone who genuinely cares about the kids but also is very loyal to position of the Kazekage, regardless of his personal feelings for the current person who holds the title. Of course, hanging out with Iruka so much has made him more down for traitorous activity than he would be otherwise. Basically, if Iruka can come up with an interpretation of orders so that they aren't technically breaking orders but still ignoring their intention, Baki will go along with it.


	3. Chapter 3

“Have you seen my poison paint?” Kankuro yelled, digging through the drawers of his dresser.

“Which one?” Iruka yelled back, checking his pack for the fourth time just to be extra sure he had everything. Kankuro had several different poison paints and a bad tendency to stash them in out-of-the-way places and promptly forget where they were.

“The purp-never mind, I found it,” Kankuro emerged from his room, holding up the pot in triumph. 

“You know you could have done this earlier this week, or you know yesterday, and avoided this,” Temari told him judgmentally. 

“Lay off, we still have a hour before we are scheduled to leave,” Kankuro waved her off. “And I have everything else.” Temari definitely did not believe him and demanded to see his pack. Iruka left them to it and went to check on Gaara.

“You got everything?” he stuck his head into Gaara’s room and asked.

Gaara nodded, gesturing to the pack by the door but not saying anything. He had been quiet ever since the three of them had been called into the Kazekage’s office and told their part in the invasion plan. Iruka desperately wanted to explain what he was planning to Gaara, but he couldn’t risk angering the Kazekage and getting left behind where he couldn’t help at all. Hopefully they would be able to find the time and space to have that much needed conversation soon. But he just couldn’t let things stand as they were.

“Gaara, do you trust me?” Iruka asked.

“Of course,” Gaara responded, with a tone of voice that questioned why Iruka would ever have to ask.

“Then trust me when I say everything will be alright. Just focus on the chunin exams for now and we’ll address everything else as it comes, okay?” Iruka instructed, reaching out to pull Gaara into his arms.

Gaara instantly melted into the hug, “Alright.” Iruka glanced up to see Temari and Kankuro standing in the doorway. He let go of Gaara and pulled each of them into a hug in turn.

“No matter what happens, just know how proud I am of all of you,” Iruka told them. All three of the kids nodded. 

They were interrupted by a knock at the door before Iruka could say anything else. "That’s probably Baki. Temari, get the door will you? I’ll make sure your brothers have everything and meet you down there momentarily.” Temari grinned and hurried off. True to his word, Iruka glanced through Gaara’s and Kankuro’s packs to make sure they had everything they would need. It wasn’t that they couldn’t take care of themselves, they just both had somewhat odd ideas of what items were strictly necessary. 

Iruka raised his eyebrow at the amount of supplies for pranks Kankuro had packed. When he gave him a look, the puppeteer just shrugged, “You never know, they might be useful for a phase of the exams. And yes, I promise not to get caught pulling any pranks on unsuspecting villagers or anything while we’re in Leaf.”

Iruka figured that was the best he was going to get. Gaara’s pack looked good as well. “Alright, let’s get going before your sister comes to drag us down.”

Gaara and Kankuro both shouldered their packs and followed Iruka. After a quick stop in his room to grab his bag, they hurried to where Baki and Temari were.

“Cutting it a little close there,” Baki commented, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Iruka just shrugged. Baki was well aware how difficult wrangling these children could be. 

Despite Temari and Baki’s worries, they arrived with time to spare. Organizing a group as large as this would be no easy task and Iruka was glad he did not have to deal with that mess. He just had to make sure he didn’t lose any of his kids in the swarm of bodies. And given that all three of them were huddling as close to him and Baki as they could, he wasn’t too concerned about that.

“Iruka!’ he heard a voice shout and turned to see Pakura coming towards him.

“Pakura, I thought you were remaining in the village,” Iruka said as she reached him.

“I am. Someone has to keep an eye on things here. But I just wanted to ask you to keep an eye on Maki. I know she’s pretty nervous and I won’t be there to support her,” Pakura requested.

“Of course,” Iruka promised. “Given all you’ve taught her, I’m sure she’ll be fine but I’ll check in on her.”

“Thanks I appreciate it. I know I can trust you to look after her,” Pakura replied, her eyes telling him she meant for more than performance anxiety about the exams. Iruka wasn’t surprised Pakura knew of the ill-fated plan too. He could read her frustration and concern. It must be killing her to send them all off without her. “Best of luck to all of you,” Pakura finished before moving on.

“I see Maki now, I’ll go grab her,” Kankuro slipped away and approached their friend. Iruka approved. Maki really did look nervous, and establishing them as a unit could only help later on. When Iruka made his move (once he figured out what that move would be), it would help if he could get the four of them together without anyone getting suspicious. Iruka wasn’t sure how much Maki knew about their true purpose. Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari had a role to play in the invasion so knew a significant part of the plan, but he doubted they were telling every genin the extent of the Kazekage’s scheme. It would create too much of a risk that someone would accidentally let something slip.

Iruka felt someone’s gaze on him and he turned to make eye contact with the Kazekage. He was surrounded by several strong jonin as well as several people Iruka recognized as his assistants. He didn’t say anything, not that Iruka could have heard him over the din of dozens of people getting organized for their journey, but he didn’t need to. The message was received. He would be keeping an eye on Iruka, so he better not try anything. Not that that would prevent Iruka from continuing with his plan to commit treason, he would just have to be extra sneaky about it now.

“Iruka, we’re leaving now,” Baki called out to him. Iruka hurried over to where the five of them were gathered. Given how Maki’s jonin teacher had not protested Kankuro stealing her away, Iruka figured they would be free to travel with who they wished for the most part. At least he wouldn’t have to spend the next three days dealing with some snotty jonin who was constantly questioning why Iruka was even here. He was sure the kids would help him hide a body without any questions (even Maki-no one who spent that much time around Pakura maintained their sanity), and he might even be able to convince Baki to help, but he had to set a good example for the kids and that included modeling how to deal with annoying teammates in a productive and non-violent fashion. His kids were already a little bloodthirsty and he needed to make sure they channeled that impulse in the right direction. 

The first day passed quickly, with the kids bouncing various strategies off one another, with Baki and Iruka throwing in advice when they deemed it necessary. Iruka was honestly surprised at how early it was when they stopped. It was still a week before the exams started so it wasn’t like they needed to rush, but there were still a couple hours of daylight left when they halted for the night. However, Iruka just shrugged it off. He had long since given up trying to decipher the Kazekage’s every decision. Plus this gave them a chance to get some practice matches in, which the kids appreciated. Of course, that exercise on top of running through the desert all day made them exhausted. Kankuro nearly fell asleep in his dinner bowl and the rest weren’t far behind. Iruka got the four kids settled down in one of the tents. Baki had disappeared right after dinner for some jonin teacher meeting or something and so it was just Iruka awake. But no matter how much he tried, he just couldn’t fall asleep. Something was wrong. He didn’t know quite what or how he knew but he was positive there was a danger lurking nearby that he had missed. He double-checked that there were no poisonous creatures in the tent and looked around again, but nothing leaped out at him.

And then he sensed it. Usually this far away from the village, his abilities would be extremely diminished, but there was enough excess chakra from all the high powered individuals around, that he could get some sense of the area. It helped that whatever was going on was between extremely powerful individuals. Iruka sensed three chakra signatures, but he couldn’t tell who they were. He also couldn’t tell what exactly was going on. It didn’t seem like a fight or else he would alert the guards. But he decided to go investigate, throwing up a protective barrier around the tent so the kids would be safe while he was gone.

As he drew close to the edge of the camp, he felt one of the chakra signatures disappear. With how suddenly it disappeared, Iruka knew they had to have been killed. That jolted him into action and he hurried towards the direction of the disturbance. He decided not to alert anyone just yet, since he still wasn’t sure what was occurring. He definitely did not need to bring down unnecessary attention to himself or have to explain how he knew what was going on. One of the other chakra signatures moved away from the camp while the other drew closer. Iruka slightly relaxed as the Kazekage came into sight. It must just have been him and one of the anbu dealing with an enemy. Iruka almost left to go back to the tent since he avoided all unnecessary one-on-one conversations with the man. But something was wrong. As the figure drew closer, Iruka realized what it was. That man might look like the Kazekage, but that was not the Kazekage’s chakra. Iruka may not have the best sense of the Kazekage’s chakra, since he hadn’t been near him when he was fighting, but he couldn’t avoid having some familiarity with it after years of meetings with the man. And this was not that chakra. But if that wasn’t the Kazekage that meant…

“Hello, Iruka. I am surprised to see you out here alone.” Iruka could barely hold back the flinch as those eyes met his. Iruka was used to people looking right through him and the Kazekage’s gaze had never been kind. But this was something more. This gaze cut right through him and instead of the indifference or annoyance they usually held, they contained a malicious cruelty that shouldn’t be there. No one would ever call the Kazekage kind, but this far surpassed even his callousness. This gaze was of someone who delighted in causing suffering. This wasn’t the Kazekage. “You should be getting back. I’m sure the children will be displeased by your absence.”

Iruka nodded and forced himself to respond, “Of course. I was just admiring the view. I don’t usually get the chance to spend a lot of time in this part of the desert.”

The imposter looked vaguely amused, “ Oh, I could always assign you more missions outside the village if you so desire.” 

Iruka quickly declined, “Thanks, but I am happy with the current state of things. And as you said, I better get back to the kids.”

The fake Kazekage nodded and waved a hand to dismiss. Iruka bowed his head and set off towards the tent, heart beating rapidly. As soon as he entered the tent, he checked that each child was alright and scanned the surrounding area for any unusual activity. Finding none, he lay down next to Gaara and pulled the boy into his arms. Gaara went easily enough and curled up against Iruka without waking up. Iruka stroked Gaara’s hair until he could feel himself calm down.

Iruka tried to figure out how to respond to this situation. ‘Okay, Iruka, you’re pretty sure the Kazekage just got murdered and is currently being impersonated by one of the people who killed him. And no one else knows but you.’ This was way out of his pay grade. He wasn’t even sure whose pay grade it might be in, but it definitely wasn’t his.

The good thing was he didn’t think the fake suspected that he knew. Iruka had developed a rather good neutral mask after years of dealing with annoying supervisors so he hopefully hadn’t shown his terror on his face. And that conversation was something Iruka could have had with the Kazekage. And very few people knew of Iruka’s ability. It’s not like he had purposely kept it a secret at first, but since it was usually only useful while in the village, he didn’t think it was important enough to talk about them. And once he started taking care of Gaara and the others, his silence was more intentional. If the Kazekage ever made a move against them, Iruka would need all the advantages he could get. Not that that particular scenario was a concern anymore.

Iruka had to prevent himself from breaking down into hysterical laughter. He had never liked the Kazekage and started downright loathing him after he began taking care of Gaara. He thought him a terrible leader and a worse father, who claimed to be looking out for the best of the village when really he was too stubborn and prideful to ever acknowledge he was wrong. He was condescending and cruel. But Iruka knew him. He knew how he thought, how he would react. He knew how far he could push him and what retaliation could occur. While Iruka certainly wouldn’t miss the man personally, he would miss knowing his enemy. Iruka wouldn't mourn the man. In fact, all he really felt towards him was annoyance that he had to get himself killed in a way that placed Iruka’s kids and honestly the entire village at risk. Even in death he had to inconvenience Iruka and help ruin his kids’ lives.

And this imposter was a completely unknown entity. Iruka didn’t know what they would do, how they would react, or even what their abilities were. He could guess that their goal was related to the planned invasion of Leaf. It seemed like the Kazekage had intentionally met them that evening, so they were probably the driving force behind the plan. It had seemed a little insane even for the Kazekage. Which told Iruka they were willing to do whatever necessary to accomplish their objective. And they and one other associate had managed to take down the Kazekage in minutes without alerting anyone besides Iruka. So they must be insanely powerful.

Then Iruka would have to be extraordinarily careful about how he told people and who he told. The imposter had known Iruka on sight and knew he was the caretaker of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. So he probably knew the names of most of the shinobi traveling with them and generally how the Kazekage interacted with them. Not only would Iruka need to find a way to tell people he could trust without alerting the imposter and getting himself killed, but he would have to find a way to convince people he was telling the truth. All he had was information from a skill most people didn’t know he had and a general location of the Kazekage’s body, which he couldn’t go back for without attracting suspicion. 

‘Well at least on the bright side, I’m no longer technically committing treason,’ Iruka thought hysterically. The man currently giving orders wasn’t the Kazekage and had in fact killed the real Kazekage. If he could just spread word of that, hopefully this insane plan would be called off. But remembering the look in the eyes of the imposter, he had no doubt that if he made one wrong move, he would be dead before he realized what was happening. And he couldn’t risk leaving the kids like that. They needed him more than ever. This imposter certainly had no loyalty to Sand and so would have no problems getting them all killed in pursuit of their purpose. At least with the real Kazekage, he would be a little less willing to throw away all their lives, if only because that would weaken the village.

What Iruka really needed was more information. Without knowing the enemies’ abilities or numbers, he was in a bind. Well, if this person held such a grudge against Leaf that they were willing to kill and impersonate the leader of another village and risk starting another all out war, maybe Leaf would know something about who they might be. Not that Iruka had much of a description to offer beyond incredibly powerful, slightly deranged, and terrifying. But someone like that would have stuck out, so maybe if Iruka could get into their archives or something.

Iruka was jolted out of his thoughts as a figure entered the tent. He reached for the kunai by his side before realizing it was Baki. The jonin quirked an eyebrow at him, silently asking what was wrong. Iruka wasn’t quite sure what his face looked like right now, but it clearly revealed that something was off. 

Iruka waved Baki off, “Just had to have a one-on-one with the Kazekage, which I had hoped to avoid during this trip.” Baki rolled his eyes. He had gotten so desensitized with Iruka’s casual insults towards the leader of their village. The first few times Iruka had done so, he had looked so shocked, it was honestly amusing. But Iruka certainly wasn’t going to change his behavior and the Kazekage already knew he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinion about him to those he was close to, so he just kept it up and eventually Baki had gotten used to it. Luckily, Baki bought Iruka’s explanation and laid down in his bedroll. While Iruka wanted to tell Baki, he didn’t dare just yet.

He’d tell Baki, Mari, and Scorpion, if he could find him, Iruka decided. However, he would have to wait until they reached Leaf. Then the imposter would be preoccupied fooling the other village leaders and organizing the attack. Even if Iruka couldn’t find any information about the imposter in Leaf, that would provide enough of a distraction to Iruka discreetly inform those three of what happened. He trusted they would believe him even if he didn’t have concrete evidence. Of course, he would have to be wary of other villages eavesdropping as well. If one of them found out the Kazekage was dead and no one from Sand figured it out, they would look weak and invite another attack they could ill-afford. So Iruka just had to find a way to expose the imposter, stop the attack on Leaf, encourage Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, and Maki during the exams, and not die while doing any of the other activities. This was definitely out of his pay grade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My family has a long history of putting things in a very special place and then promptly forgetting where that special place was. I felt Kankuro would share this habit.
> 
> I honestly don't remember the timeline of when Orochimaru started impersonating the Kazekage in canon- if he took over and then announced the invasion plan or what. In this universe, he approached the Kazekage with the invasion plan, the Kazekage immediately agreed because he's an idiot, they met up to finalize plans, and Orochimaru and bone-dude killed him and Orochimaru took his place.
> 
> The Kazekage- literally gets murdered. Iruka- um, could you have maybe done that when it wasn't so inconvenient for me? 
> 
> Next chapter the crew arrives in Leaf and Naruto makes an appearance.


	4. Chapter 4

The final two days of their journey to Leaf were the most nerve-wrecking 48 hours Iruka had ever experienced. The intruder’s presence hovered, his chakra so off from any Iruka had felt before. He couldn’t describe what was wrong with it beyond saying it felt wrong. Iruka spent every spare minute he had fusing over the kids. He made them check again and again that they had all the supplies they needed, ran through any jutsus and traps he thought might be useful to them, and would not let them out of his sight. Maki had never seen Iruka in full over-protective parent mode and ended up hiding behind Temari a couple times to get a break from his hovering. Luckily, the other three were more used to it, although Iruka didn’t think he had ever been this bad before. Gaara almost seemed to enjoy it, happily going over his strategies with Iruka again and again. Of course, those strategies were less about how to win fights and more about how to find and befriend any jinchurikis he could find, but Iruka was happy to listen and give advice anyway. 

On a positive note, Iruka was fairly convinced the imposter hadn’t figured out what he knew. Sure, they watched him, but no more than the Kazekage would and the gaze was rather detached, not at all concerned. So Iruka was probably safe. For now at least. But he was very careful not to do anything that could let the imposter know he was on to them. The fussing could easily be excused given the chunin exams and the invasion plan. If Iruka was caught trying to convince some of the adult shinobi on the trip that they should kill the Kazekage because that wasn’t actually the Kazekage, that would be harder to explain.

Iruka had decided he would tell Baki, Scorpion, and Mari once they reached Leaf. Iruka knew Scorpion was here, having felt his chakra even if he hadn’t seen him. But it wouldn’t be hard to track him down once they were in Leaf since Iruka’s sensing would work even better there. Hopefully, the fake-Kazekage would be too preoccupied with fooling the other kage to notice what Iruka was doing. Once they settled in, Iruka would scope out what the best place and time would be to tell them without anyone else noticing. Iruka doubted anyone in Sand would be working with someone who killed the Kazekage, but he couldn’t take the chance that there were other disguised individuals or that a Sand shinobi would overhear part of their conversation and jump to the wrong conclusion. Once he got those three in on the situation, they could help him figure out what to do next. Iruka felt even more grateful that Mari was accompanying them than he had when he had first found out. She was relentlessly level-headed and had a lot of connections due to all the shinobi she had healed over the years, so she would be invaluable. And he knew he would have to tell the kids at some point, but he put that off for now. The less they knew, the lesser danger they would be in, at least for now.

Iruka honestly didn’t pay much attention to the bland welcome speech a Leaf shinobi delivered to the group once they reached the gate. He was sure they wouldn’t say anything he needed to hear, and he had a few other things on his mind right now. He trailed after Baki who led the group to the place they would be staying during the exams. Sadly, they had to give Maki back to her genin-team at that point, since each team had their own space. Iruka, thankfully, was staying with the kids and Baki. Leaf, and Iruka guessed all the other villages as well, had apartments set up specifically for the chunin exams. It allowed the village to keep an eye on their visitors and separate any groups between whom tensions might be high. Iruka, Baki, and the kids would be sharing an apartment for the duration of the exams. It was honestly more spacious than Iruka was anticipating. 

As soon as the kids put their stuff away, Kankuro started bouncing around in excitement, “Iruka, can we go explore the village?” Temari and Gaara both looked over, eager to hear the answer.

“Alright,” Iruka agreed. “Can I trust you to go by yourselves?” As much as Iruka wanted to look after them, this would give him an opportunity to speak with the people he needed to while the imposter was busy with the Hokage and whoever else was high ranking enough to attend whatever boring meeting was currently going on. And Iruka didn’t think the three of them could get into anything as dangerous as the situation he needed to deal with just wandering around Leaf for an hour. The kids and Baki all looked rather surprised he was letting them go on their own. “I have a few things to take care of,” he explained.

“What sort of things?” Temari asked.

“Boring adult things that aren’t nearly as interesting as exploring a new village,” Iruka replied. The three of them seemed to accept that. “Promise me you won’t start anything and if you get into any trouble come back here right away, alright?” Iruka got each of them to promise. After all, he knew he should never underestimate their ability to find trouble. But they were strong and Iruka trusted them to look after themselves for the most part.

Gaara tugged at his hand, “Shukaku says that there’s another jinchuriki in the village. Can I go find them?” Iruka had not expected them to run into a jinchuriki so soon, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to let Gaara meet them. Temari could pull him away if the jinchuriki was hostile.

“Sure, just remember what I told you about being careful and be sure to respect their boundaries. If they don’t want to be friends right off the bat, that’s okay.” Gaara nodded solemnly. Iruka ruffled his hair and pulled him into a hug. “Pick up some ingredients while you're out, will you? You guys get to decide what we have for dinner tonight.” The spirited debate over that preoccupied the three of them until they were out the door, and for quite a bit longer, if Iruka’s hearing was to be believed.

Baki waited long enough for Iruka to throw up his silencing seals before asking, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“What makes you think I wanted to talk to you about something?” Iruka asked. Shit, had Baki noticed he was acting strange? If so, would the imposter also have noticed?

Baki gave him a rather unimpressed look, “Iruka, you are the single most overprotective parent I have ever encountered. The only reason you would let your kids wander around the strange village unattended is if you needed to deal with something that presented a bigger threat to their safety.”

Iruka had to admit that was true. Hopefully this wouldn’t look too out of character to anyone else. Just then there was a knock at the door. Iruka hurriedly took down the silencing barrier and nodded at Baki who opened it. Standing on the other side was Mari. Iruka felt a familiar chakra signature behind him and realized Scorpion had entered through the window when his back was turned.

Mari made a gesture at Iruka until he guessed what she wanted and threw up the silencing barrier again.

“Why are you letting your kids wander around a hostile village without you?” Mari demanded. “Did you get hit in the head on the way over?”

So much for not seeming out of character, Iruka sighed. 

“No, I’m fine, Mari, I promise,” he rushed to reassure her before she gave him a check-up, whether he wanted one or not. “But I’m glad that you are here. I need to talk to you about something.” He turned to Scorpion, “Where is the Kazekage right now?”

Scorpion raised his eyebrow, “He and most of his guards are still in the initial meeting. Luckily, I am off duty currently. Is this somehow related to him?”

“Very,” Iruka sighed, reinforcing his silencing barrier just to be safe. “Tell me, have any of you noticed anything odd about the Kazekage in the last couple of days?”

Mari and Baki both shook their heads, which wasn’t surprising since they had hardly interacted with him at all during the trip. Scorpion looked thoughtful, “Nothing concrete, but something does seem off recently.”

“So what, is this a lead up to telling us you killed him and stashed his body somewhere in the desert on the way here?” Mari asked, flopping down on the coach.

“Well I didn’t do it,” Iruka answered before he could think it through. He had really wanted to give a better lead up than that. Mari let out a short laugh before she saw Iruka’s face.

“Wait, you’re serious?” She gasped. Baki’s face had gone completely pale. Scorpion hadn’t visibly reacted but was staring very intensely at Iruka.

“Let me start at the beginning. You all know how I can feel chakra to a certain extent?” All three nodded. “The first night of our journey I felt a disturbance a little ways away from the camp. I didn’t know quite what was going on, so I walked in that direction. There were three chakra signatures but then one of them disappeared. And a few minutes later, the Kazekage strolled into view. Except it wasn’t the Kazekage. I know his chakra and this wasn’t it. The only explanation I can come up with this imposter killed the Kazekage and took his place,” Iruka reported. “I don’t think they're on to me, but I’m not sure.”

While Mari and Baki were getting over their shock, Scorpion asked, “And you’re sure the Kazekage was the one who was killed?”

Iruka shook his head, “No, not completely. It was far away and I don’t have the greatest sense of the Kazekage’s chakra. But the other presence went away from the camp and never returned, so I’m pretty sure they were not a Sand shinobi. I knew I wasn’t familiar with their chakra or the chakra of the person who came back to camp. And I was familiar with the chakra that disappeared. The Kazekage being killed is the only explanation that makes sense. I do think he might have been working with whoever killed him initially, but they had to have betrayed him. There is no way he would agree to have this plan go into effect without his presence.”

Scorpion nodded, “I agree with you on that. But I needed to be sure, this is a rather extreme accusation.”

“I understand,” Iruka said. “Believe me, I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t truly believe it was true. This just adds that many more complications to an already terrible situation.”

Everyone nodded. “So where do we go from here?” Baki asked. “That is not the Kazekage, and it seems like this invasion plan wasn’t fully the Kazekage’s from the very beginning. So what does the imposter seek to accomplish by doing this?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea who they might be,” Iruka admitted.

“Which is dangerous,” Mari pointed out. “To have killed the Kazekage with just them and one other fighter, even if it was a surprise attack, they must be extremely powerful.” 

“So we’ve got a fighter of unknown capacity impersonating the leader of our village and we are about to unleash an unnecessary and bloody attack on Leaf for this imposter,” Scorpion summed up. 

“Pretty much,” Iruka agreed. “If anyone has any brilliant ideas for what to do about this, I’m open to suggestions.” Everyone mulled it over.

“Just to be clear, are we in agreement that we need to stop the attack?” Mari asked.

“I think that would best,” Scorpion replied and Iruka and Baki agreed. 

“Alright. I know more people on this little trip than anyone else, so I’ll take stock of who is here. I’ll get back to you once I have an idea of how each person will react: who will believe us without difficulty, who will take more convincing, and who won’t believe us if we showed them the Kazekage’s body,” Mari decided.

“I will keep an eye on the imposter and contact you if it seems like they are catching on to us,” Scorpion informed them. “I’ll also talk to the other anbu and try and point out inconsistencies in the fake’s behavior when possible.”

“Well with our response coming together, we just need to find out more about who the fake is,” Baki said.

“I was thinking they probably have a grudge against Leaf, or at least someone important in Leaf, to be willing to go to such lengths,” Iruka offered.

“I would agree,” Scorpion put it. 

“Maybe a missing nin from Leaf?” Maki suggested.

“It’s possible,” Baki agreed. “But it could also be someone who hates Leaf for killing their family or any number of other reasons. No village has any shortage of enemies.”

“So we really don’t have anything to go on,” Iruka sighed.

“Would a Bingo book help?” Mari asked. 

“I can look through ours, but what would be truly helpful would be to see a copy of Leaf’s,” Scorpion replied. “Each village notes enemies with a particular grudge against them, which would be a good starting point for candidates of who the imposter is.”

“Where are we going to get one of those? It’s not like we can just ask a Leaf shinobi for one without them getting incredibly suspicious and drawing a dangerous amount of attention to ourselves,” Iruka pointed out.

“I know, Iruka can seduce a Leaf shinobi and get their copy,” Mari offered helpfully.

“What, no! Why would you suggest that?” Iruka yelled, turning bright red while Mari cackled. 

“According to your kids everyone likes you, so it shouldn’t be too hard,” she teased. 

“Any actual suggestions?” Baki asked, wearing the same look he did when the kids had been arguing for 20 minutes about what to have for dinner.

“You don’t you and Iruka try to figure out a solution?” Scorpion instructed. “Mari and I will start on our tasks. It would be ill-advised to make a move without more information, and we have some time. The invasion won’t occur until the final round, which is more than a month away. I’m sure you two will be able to come up with something.”

Everyone agreed and the meeting broke up pretty quickly after that. Lingering unnecessary would be dangerous and lead to questions they didn’t have good answers to.

Baki and Iruka spent the next few hours verbally discussing strategies for the kids during the chunin exams while passing a paper back and forth brainstorming ways to get their hands on a Bingo book from Leaf. Leaving the silencing seals up for too long could make any watcher suspicious, after all. Neither of them could come up with a feasible plan, so their suggestions included breaking into the Hokage’s office and when caught, pretend to have gotten lost looking for the training fields, just break into random shinobi’s houses and search them until they found a copy, having Iruka trip a Leaf shinobi and try and steal any papers they had on them while pretending to help them up. Baki insisted on adding Mari’s suggestion to the list, further insisting that Iruka should seduce a Leaf jonin because they were more likely to have a copy than others. It was very frustrating. But it’s not like this was an easy task. Bingo books were closely guarded secrets and they had to move very carefully or risk not only getting killed by Leaf but having the imposter realize they knew, which would put the kids in an incredible amount of danger.

After Baki started drawing little hearts around the seduction option, Iruka took the paper and burned it in the sink. Maybe taking a break from it and coming back to it with fresh minds later would help. Iruka looked outside and noticed it was starting to get dark. The kids should have been back by now. His hand dropped to the sand bracelet that he had worn for years. Over time, Gaara had figured out how to use them to not only tell where Iruka was but to make Iruka’s bracelet react if they were in danger. Since he hadn’t gotten a signal, he figured they were alright, but if they weren’t back in a few minutes he would go out and look for them. No sooner had he thought that, then he felt the kids’ chakra come into range. They were heading towards the apartment. Iruka let out a breath of relief. He didn’t think anything would happen to them in their first few hours of being in a strange village, but it was nice to have reassurance. 

As they drew closer, Iruka realized they weren’t alone. All three kids were there, but there were five additional chakra signatures with them. Iruka was sure he had never felt these before, although one felt vaguely familiar. Three were clearly from shinobi, one was much weaker, Iruka would have thought it was from a civilian if not for the company, and the familiar one. Iruka focused in on that one. It wasn’t that he had ever felt this particular signature before, but it had a quality to it that he was used to. Very strong, but it seemed split somehow. Like there were two different contributors...oh, Iruka abruptly realized what this meant.

“Well the good news is the kids are on their way back,” he remarked to Baki. 

“What’s the bad news?” Baki asked, looking very resigned to his fate.

“Well, it’s not bad, per se. But they are accompanied by five others, one of whom is definitely a jinchuriki,” Iruka told him.

Baki stared at him, “So you’re telling me we leave them alone for one afternoon and Gaara already kidnapped someone?”

“Kidnapped is such a strong word,” Iruka replied. “Given that there’s five of them, they’re probably coming of their own free will.” Probably.

Baki did not look convinced, “This is Gaara we’re talking about. I love the kid but once he gets an idea in his head, it is incredibly hard to get him to change course. And I find it a little hard to believe that some other village just let their jinchuuriki and four other kids come over for dinner.” Iruka had to admit he had a point.

“Well we’ll find out soon enough.” They had just entered the building.

“Damage control time, I guess,” Baki muttered, looking very done. 

Before Iruka could respond, the door burst open and Gaara entered dragging a blond boy with a Leaf headband by his hand, “Iruka, Iruka. I made a friend. This is Naruto. He’s a jinchuriki too!” Iruka spared a moment to smile at Gaara and ruffle his hair. He looked so happy, he just couldn't help himself. He then crouched down so he could look Naruto in the eyes.

“Hello, Naruto, it’s very nice to meet you. My name is Iruka. I hope Gaara asked your permission before dragging you back to meet me,” Iruka said quietly. Naruto’s gaze was wary, his hand clenching and unclenching itself, but he reached out and shook Iruka’s hand after a moment of hesitation.

“Hi, nice to meet you too. And Gaara’s been really nice. He said you wouldn’t mind having us over and even said you would cook for us,” Naruto said in a rush, shifting back and forth on his feet.

“I’m delighted to have you over and I don’t mind cooking at all,” Iruka assured him, careful to keep his tone gentle and a soft smile on his face. Inside he was furious. This child looked so uncertain. Maybe some of that could be put down to being around people from a strange village that he just met, but his tone made it sound like he couldn’t believe anyone would want to have him over, ever. Iruka didn’t know what Leaf had done to this boy, but he would make sure Naruto knew he was safe and wanted around him.

Naruto’s face split into a huge grin. “Awesome. Can I help? Tenten never lets me help in the kitchen.”

“That’s because the few times I did let you help, you managed to destroy three pots and nearly set yourself on fire,” a brown-haired girl commented from the doorway. Iruka let himself focus on their other guests. All were from Leaf: the girl who had just spoken who was looking at Iruka warily, a boy with truly impressive eyebrows, a pink-haired girl who was looking around with wonder, and a boy who was glaring at Iruka like he was trying to set him on fire. Kankuro waved happily at him, content with the chaos he had surely helped cause while Temari just kind of shrugged when Iruka caught her eye. 

“Well then, Gaara, why don’t you keep Naruto company while we work on dinner? I’ll let you help another time. I’d rather not have to explain to the Kazekage why the apartment is on fire with numerous Leaf shinobi inside on our first night here,” Iruka instructed, ushering the remaining children into the kitchen and throwing up a silencing barrier around the room. He trusted Gaara would come get him if he needed anything and back off if Naruto looked uncomfortable. Besides, as much as he loved Gaara and would do anything for him, and he guessed Naruto’s friends felt similar given the evaluating and concerned looks they were exchanging, there were some things only other jinchuriki could understand. Baki stayed close to the doorway, so he could signal Iruka if anything looked concerning as well.

“I hope you don’t mind helping me out with dinner,” Iruka said. Temari and Kankuro had already set the bags down and started pulling out the ingredients they needed. “Now before we get started why don’t you introduce ourselves? I’m Iruka, as I’m sure you have picked up on. I’m a chunin who specializes in seals. Over there is Baki, the jonin teacher for this mess of a team.” Laughing at Kankuro’s noise of disapproval, Iruka continued, “And I’m sure Temari and Kankuro already introduced themselves.” Temari gave him a nod. Iruka then turned towards the Leaf children and gestured at them.

“I’m Tenten,” the girl who had spoken earlier to disparage Naruto’s cooking ability said. “I really like weapons, but I’m also interested in seals.”

Iruka smiled, “I can show you some of mine later, if you want.” She nodded, but Iruka knew given her look she hadn’t decided whether to trust him yet. He didn’t begrudge her the hesitation. He’d be wary of someone completely unknown who just butted into Gaara’s life without any explanation.

“I’m Lee and I’m going to be a great shinobi even though I can’t manipulate chakra,” the boy with the eyebrows proclaimed.

Iruka nodded, “You must be very strong then. I look forward to seeing what you will accomplish.” Lee looked taken aback for half a second before smiling broadly and thanking Iruka. He wondered how many people had ridiculed him or dismissed him automatically when he told them that. Iruka had never heard of a shinobi that didn’t use chakra, but he was no stranger to using techniques others dismissed so he certainly wouldn’t count the idea out. 

“I’m Sakura,” the pink-haired girl introduced herself. “I think I’m interested in being a med-nin.”

“Nice to meet you. One of my best friends is a med-nin. I can introduce you to her later,” iruka offered.

“I thought we were trying not to scare them off. And Mari will definitely terrify them,” Kankuro commented. 

“Oh hush, she’s not that bad,” Iruka replied.

“No, I’m with Kankuro on this one,” Temari cut in. Iruka rolled his eyes and turned towards the last one.

“I’m Sasuke,” the boy said shortly, not once letting up on his mission to glare a hole through Iruka’s head. It was kind of cute. Iruka regularly survived the Kazekage’s glare, a genin’s didn’t really hold the same killing intent to it, no matter how hard he tried. 

“Well, it’s very nice to meet all of you. Now, let’s get dinner going while we give Naruto and Gaara a chance to talk. I assure you, we mean Naruto no harm.” Although none of them quite looked ready to trust them yet, except maybe Lee who was still grinning broadly, they at least went along with him for now. That was enough. Iruka had plenty of experience wrangling wary children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gaara and Naruto friendship start! Iruka has definitely acquired at least one new child and woe be to anyone who tries to stop him.
> 
> Iruka: Lets kids explore on their own. Okay, this a little unusual for me but not a big deal.  
> Everyone who knows him: Iruka, are you feeling alright? You barely let the kids out of your sight in Sand, if you can help it, let alone a strange village full of potential enemies.  
> Iruka: I have committed a grave error.
> 
> Please let me know if there are any incidents where you think I meant Maki instead of Mari or vice versa. I had to change at least five names when proofreading and it's very possible that I missed a few. This is what I get for forgetting Maki's name even though I knew I wanted to include her later in the story and just naming my oc whatever I wanted.
> 
> Next chapter will be from Sakura's pov and tell how the kids all met.


	5. Sakura

Sakura wasn’t quite sure how she got here, cutting vegetables in a strange Sand shinobi’s kitchen. Well that was a lie. She knew how she got here, but it was such an odd string of events that she kept checking to make sure she hadn't been caught in a very odd genjutsu.

Kakashi had told them a couple of weeks ago about the chunin exams. Sakura had initially felt a little hesitant about entering. There was still so much she needed to learn. But given that Naruto and Sasuke had already whole-heartedly thrown themselves into preparing for the exams, she shook off her doubts. She wouldn’t let them go into as dangerous a situation as the chunin exams were sure to be without her. This was what she had been training for for years. 

Of course, Sakura had intellectually known that hosting the chunin exams meant people from all the other villages would come to Leaf, but she was still surprised when she started seeing strange shinobi around the village. They all looked so strong and it was kind of intimidating. Kakashi had released them from their training session and she was walking Naruto and Sasuke back to the apartment they definitely didn’t share (The last time Kiba had suggested that, Sasuke had disappeared to his gloomy house for a week and Naruto had looked quite sleep deprived for that same period. After that, no one brought it up.), when they heard some strange noises from the alley behind the apartment building. Naruto’s curiosity had gotten the best of him and he set off to find out what was making the noise. Sasuke and Sakura had shared a long-suffering look and followed after him.

Sakura wasn’t quite sure what she expected to find, but the scene that greeted them when they stuck their heads down the alley was something she could never have anticipated. There were three kids, who Sakura guessed were around their age. They had the Sand symbol on their headbands. Sakura recognized the garb one of the boys was wearing as that of a puppeteer. She had read about their techniques, well as much as someone outside of Sand could and was fascinated by them. To have such incredible chakra control and use it in such an interesting way. Sakura wondered if she could get him to tell her more about it. 

Of course, currently he seemed to be trying to coax something out from behind a trash can. Just as Sakura decided to say something, he stood up, “Got it!” He pulled a rather angry looking raccoon out and held it out in front of him. “Look Gaara, it’s your roommate.” 

The red-haired boy who Sakura guessed was Gaara looked very unimpressed, “Shukaku says he would kill you right now but that would make Iruka upset so he’ll hold off for now. But we will get our revenge when you are least expecting it.” 

The puppeteer seemed rather unconcerned for something who just got a death threat. Sakura was just confused. Who was Shukaku? What did he mean by roommate? And who was Iruka? She glanced over at the boys to see what their reactions were. Sasuke looked like he was confused about how these people had been allowed to attempt the chunin exam while Naruto was staring very intensely at Gaara.

“Can’t you two act normal for one hour?” The blond girl standing next to them asked. “Iruka is never going to let us go off on our own again. How did we get this lost? And what if someone saw you? You are representatives of Sand and children of the Kazekage, act like it.” 

“But we all hate Father,” Gaara pointed out. His brother nodded along.

“Well yes, but we don’t want to give him any ammunition to say Iruka isn’t raising us right, do we?” The girl pointed out. Seriously, who was this Iruka? And Sakura was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to say you hated the kage of your village. Particularly if they were your parent.

“Fair point, fair point,” the puppeteer agreed. “Good thing no one heard us, I guess.” There was a slight pause and then as one all three turned to the mouth of the alley and saw Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke. “Well shit.”

“Eloquent as always, Kankuro,” the blond girl muttered. “Hi, I’m Temari. This idiot is my brother Kankuro and this is my other brother Gaara,” she gestured to each in turn. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Since Kankuro grabbed the raccoon,” Sasuke told her, raising his eyebrow judgmentally. She winced. Kankuro, Sakura noted, looked completely unrepentant. Gaara didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the conversation and was instead staring back at Naruto.

“Sorry you had to see that. Did I mention he’s an idiot?” She ignored his disgruntled protest with an air of long practice. Sakura noticed she actually didn’t seem too concerned about them having seen and heard the exchange. If someone from another village had overheard her bad-mouthing the Hokage, she would be incredibly worried about them blackmailing her or something. But none of them seemed worried or even regretful.

“So, what-”

“You’re like me,” Gaara interrupted Temari. He was still staring intensely at Naruto. 

“What?” Naruto asked.

“Shukaku says you’re the jinchuriki of Kurama.” He tilted his head like he was listening to something only he could hear, “He says he feels sorry for you having to put up with that asshole.” Sakura whipped her head around to look at Naruto. It wasn’t that she didn’t know that Naruto was a jinchuriki. They had learned that after the incident with Mizuki. It had made so many things make so much more sense- how the villagers feared Naruto, his insane chakra reserves, why Akamaru and the other Inuzuka dogs were nervous around him at first. Of course, it also made them furious. The Hokage had to have known how people would react to Naruto and he just left him at the village’s mercy without even bothering to explain to Naruto what he was. Once Shikamaru had talked them down from storming the Hokage’s office to yell at him for his terrible decisions (since it wouldn’t really accomplish anything and could have resulted in hurting Naruto), everyone had just adjusted to the new information and went on with life. No one feared Naruto or anything. 

Shikamaru and Sakura had started researching what they could about jinchurikis and how to control the chakra of bijuus. Naruto didn’t seem to be able to tap into it right now, but he might want to someday, so they would do what they could to help with that. Unfortunately, there was not much about there about that. Jinchurikis were closely guarded secrets so not a lot was known about them or their techniques. 

Which was part of why Sakura was so surprised to hear Gaara openly admit that he was a jinchuriki.

“Who’s Kurama? And who’s Shukaku?” Sasuke asked when Naruto didn’t say anything.

Gaara tilted his head, wearing a confused expression, “Shouldn’t you know the name of the bijuu sealed within you? Shukaku talked to me all the time even before Iruka fixed the seal.”

“To be fair, he mainly encouraged you to kill people until the seal got fixed,” Kankuro helpfully pointed out.

Gaara just kind of shrugged, “Yeah, but he still talked. And he says Kurama is too much of a drama queen to allow his jinchuriki to just ignore him for years, so something must be blocking him from talking. What kind of seal do you have?” At this point, Gaara had moved until he was right in front of Naruto, still staring at him.

“Careful, Gaara. Remember what Iruka said,” Temari called out. 

Gaara nodded and stepped back, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m just excited because I’ve never met another jinchuriki before.”

“You can talk to him?” Naruto finally spoke up. “And he’s your friend? He’s not just a monster?”

Sakura and Sasuke shared a look and drew closer to Naruto. He had spent his entire life being hatred for an unknown reason. When he had found out that he was a jinchuriki, he hadn’t reacted as expressively as anyone expected, just saying, “Oh that makes sense,” and then asking if he could be alone. They had decided to give him time and left for the night. The next day, Tenten had found them and told them she and Lee had checked on Naruto later. He had been sitting on the floor in the dark, and hadn’t said anything when Lee had called out to announce their presence. They had sat with him for a while before he had asked, “The villagers weren’t wrong to hate me, were they?” 

“I couldn’t respond,” Tenten had told them, “I was completely caught off guard. And before either of us could say anything, Naruto had continued.

“I mean everyone knows what the Nine-tails did to the village. And now it’s inside of me and I’m a danger to everyone around me. I lost control on the last mission and don’t remember anything. What if I had hurt Sasuke or Sakura while in that state? I can’t be trusted.”

Tenten had admitted she was a few seconds from just fighting the entire village until they acknowledged the torment they were putting Naruto through, to the point that they had so thoroughly destroyed his self-worth that he would justify their actions and see himself as the problem rather than them. Lee had pulled Naruto into a tight hug at that point and would not let go no matter how much Naruto had struggled.

“Naruto, listen to me,” Lee had said, according to Tenten. “You are not to blame for what happened all those years ago. Yes, it was a tragedy and many people lost loved ones, but that does not justify their treatment of you.” He cut off Naruto’s protest, “I have known you for over six years at this point, and you have never once hurt me. Or Tenten, or Kiba, or Ino, or any of your friends. You have encouraged us and believed in us no matter what. You are not the Nine-tails and any one who took the time to truly get to know you would see how kind and loving you are. That they do not take that time is their loss, but it says nothing about you. I trust you and I love you. And if you lose control again, I trust that you will regain yourself. Because I know you would never hurt the people you care about.” Halfway through the speech, Naruto had broken down in tears and Lee just held him, stroking his hair. The three of them had apparently curled up together on blankets on the floor, and when Sasuke had come back from giving Naruto space, he had joined them. Tenten had left the three boys still sleeping and met with everyone else at their usual training post to update them on what had happened.

Naruto never brought up the incident, but Sakura was sure it lingered in the back of his mind. When he messed up on missions, he’d flinch and glance around, like if he made too many mistakes, the village would decide he wasn’t worth it and cast him out.

“And did you? Kill people, that is?” Naruto asked.

“Yes,” Gaara admitted. “Before Iruka fixed the seal I killed eight people.”

Naruto let out a gasp, which Sakura echoed. Even Sasuke looked surprised.

“But I haven’t killed anyone in years. Not since Iruka fixed my seal,” Gaara assured them. Sakura’s mind was still stuck on the-has killed multiple people and is still alive. She snuck a glance at Naruto-if he had ever even minorly hurt someone outside of training, she felt like the villagers would form a mob and try to kill him. Gaara’s experience must be completely foreign to him.

“Well, the Kazekage did try to kill me a couple of times, but I just killed those people too, and he stopped after Iruka started taking care of me,” Gaara told them.

“Who’s Iruka?” Sasuke asked the question Sakura had been wondering about for a while.

“Oh now you’ve done it,” Kankuro groaned.

“As if you aren’t just as fond of Iruka,” Temari shot back. 

Before Sakura could respond to that conversation, Gaara launched into his explanation, “Iruka’s been my caretaker since I was six. He’s amazing. He never treated me like a monster and didn’t get mad even when I hurt him. He knows all about desert plants and invented a ton of awesome seals. He’d taught us a bunch of them and we have pulled off a lot of pranks with them. It drives Father crazy. He fixed my seal and yelled Shukaku into submission. He yells at the Kazekage too and protects us from him. He’s a really good cook too. He calms us down whenever we have nightmares. And...” Sakura understood the earlier comments. Gaara’s face just lit up when he started talking about Iruka and he went on for a solid five minutes about how wonderful Iruka was. It was honestly impressive. Sakura didn’t think she would have that many good things to say about her own parents.

When he finally finished, Naruto asked, “So Iruka takes care of you? And makes sure you eat? And tells you everything will be alright when you wake up scared?” Sakura’s heart clenched. She knew intellectually that Naruto had never known his parents and while they all did the best they could to show him how loved he was, it wasn’t the same as having a parental figure who could look out for you.

Gaara nodded solemnly.

Naruto let out a laugh that was more bitter than he probably intended it to be, “He sounds amazing.”

“You would like to meet him?” Gaara asked.

“What?” Naruto responded, surprised.

“I’m sure he would like to meet you. And we haven’t picked up supplies for dinner yet so we can just get enough for more people,” Gaara explained. “What should be fine, right?” He turned to ask Temari.

She shrugged, “Yeah, I don’t see a problem. Kankuro’s the one who has to explain it to Baki though.”

“Why me?” Kankuro protested.

“Because you pulled us into this alleyway specifically so you could find a raccoon to shove in Gaara’s face, and I’m still annoyed at you for that, so I want to make you suffer,” Temari told him bluntly.

Kankuro considered that for a moment, “Fair enough, I guess.”

“We don’t know you. You’re from a village with whom we don’t have very friendly relations. What makes you think we would let Naruto go anywhere with you alone?” Sasuke asked threateningly, putting himself between Naruto and the siblings.

Instead of being concerned, Temari just looked amused by this, “We never said he had to come alone. You’re free to tag along if you like. Besides, we’re in your village. Do you really think we would be dumb enough to try something when we are so outnumbered?” 

Sasuke didn’t really relax but he no longer looked like he was two seconds from attacking them, so Sakura figured he had accepted their explanation. “Do you want to go?” he asked Naruto.The blond looked hesitant before nodding. Sasuke nodded back, “Alright, I’ll go with you then. Sakura, do you have to be home for dinner?”

Sakura shook her head, “No, my parents are out of the village at the moment so I’m free. I’ll come with too.” She didn’t sense any ill-will from the siblings, but she didn’t trust them yet either. “We should probably tell Tenten and Lee before we go,” she pointed out. She knew Naruto usually ate dinner with them and had no doubt they would tear the village apart to find him if he didn’t show up without warning.

“Right,” Naruto hastily agreed. 

“Gaara, why don’t you go with Naruto and his friend to tell them? Feel free to invite them over as well,” Temari instructed. “Are you comfortable going shopping with me and Kankuro?” she asked Sakura. “I’m sure everyone is hungry by now and this will be quicker.”

Sakura glanced over at Sasuke before agreeing. The marketplace was close by and they would be around a ton of villagers the whole time. She wasn’t too worried about her safety. And Sasuke and Naruto could take on Gaara if he tried anything once they were inside the apartment building.

“Great. Everyone good with stir-fry for dinner tonight? We should be able to throw that together pretty quickly.” Everyone agreed with various degrees of enthusiasm and then Sakura was showing Temari and Kankuro to the market.

They had been wondering for a few minutes, picking out various ingredients when Temari said, “Our father always told us that there may come a time where we would have to kill our brother for the sake of the village.”

“What?” Sakura yelled, taken aback.

“Our mother died giving birth to Gaara. He had never been the most involved parent to begin with, but after that we hardly saw him. He did tell us that Gaara was a jinchuriki and what that entailed. But we hardly ever Gaara for years-just meeting with him once a month to try and establish some kind of bond so he wouldn’t kill us on sight when we became a genin team. We never really thought of him as our brother at that point. He seemed more of a monster than a person. He killed multiple villagers, starting with our uncle. Of course, our father had ordered our uncle to kill Gaara and Gaara was just defending himself, but we didn’t know that at the time. From that point forward, our father considered Gaara a failed experiment. His seal was too unstable for him to be properly controlled. And he kept sending people to kill him and Gaara killed several more people, including multiple caretakers. So we kept believing him to be a monster and never even tried to connect with him.”

“That all changed when Iruka entered the picture,” Temari continued. “He was assigned as Gaara’s caretaker when Gaara was six. Father never had a high opinion of Iruka and probably expected him to be killed within a few weeks. But Iruka was different from everyone who had come before him. He didn’t look at Gaara and see only a threat. He certainly saw that, but he also saw that Gaara was a scared, lonely boy who didn’t understand what was going on and couldn’t control the creature that had been poorly sealed inside him. He treated Gaara like a human. He cooked for him, shared stories of his childhood, and let Gaara sleep beside him. That’s not to say everything was fine, Gaara did hurt him pretty badly once. But Iruka didn’t let that stop him. He came back and continued caring for Gaara.”

“I still remember clearly our first visit after Iruka had taken over as Gaara’s caretaker,” Kankuro spoke up. “He opened the door, with Gaara leaning against his side. He asked us if we had eaten and then if we wanted to learn how to drop a bucket of paint on a jonin. We spent most of the day learning how to make trip-wires and talking about pranking techniques. It was fun. Iruka was a lot more patient than any of our other teachers. But what I really remember is how Iruka interacted with Gaara. He would carry him around and tease him like it was nothing. He obviously wasn’t afraid of Gaara and that helped us see that we shouldn’t be either.”

“We didn’t trust Gaara right away,” Temari took over, “but we could see that he wasn’t the monster the village thought he was. It was obvious that he loved Iruka and Iruka loved him. And honestly, we liked Iruka far more than any of our caretakers, so we started hanging out at their house a lot more. And before we knew it, we started seeing Gaara as our brother, someone we needed to support and protect, rather than someone we would throw away for a village that didn’t care about him.”

“I’m not telling you this to guilt you or force you to be friends with us, but so that you understand where we are coming from. We love Gaara and want him to be happy. We can do our best to protect him from the villager’s harsh words and sit with him at night as he cries in confusion, but we can’t really understand him and his experiences. That is something only another jinchuriki can do. So we will do whatever we can to ensure Gaara can befriend other jinchurikis. We would never hurt Naruto because doing so would hurt Gaara and he has suffered enough already.”

Neither spoke to Sakura again during their shopping trip, instead squabbling over what the best ingredients would be and how much they needed to get. Sakura was glad for the reprieve, using it to process everything she just heard. Despite having many reasons not to trust the siblings, she found that she truly did believe their words. You couldn’t fake the emotions she had seen in their eyes. She had no doubt they truly loved Gaara and protected him like her and her friends loved and protected Naruto, when they could. And she definitely understood their point about there being some things only jinchuriki could understand. They did their best to make Naruto feel safe and appreciated, but a sense of loneliness still lingered around him and nothing they did could completely dispel it. While she was still slightly wary of the three of them, she figured seeing how this played out wouldn’t hurt. If it works out well, Naruto got a new friend who could understand his experiences and maybe she got some information about puppets from Kankuro. If it worked out poorly, she, Sasuke, Tenten, and Lee could grab Naruto and run. They were in Leaf after all, so she felt safe enough to go along with things for now.

Once they had grabbed everything they needed, the three of them set off towards the west end of the village. “Wait, how will they know where to find us?” she asked. “What if they come to the market and we aren’t there?”

“Don’t worry,” Kankuro assured her. “Gaara always knows where we are.” But he wouldn’t tell her more than that. Sure enough a couple minutes later, Naruto, Sasuke, Tenten, Lee, and Gaara came into view. Given how Tenten was eyeing the three siblings, Sakura was sure that the reason they took so long was that they had difficulties convincing her to go along with the dinner plans. 

They distributed the various bags they had among everyone and set off towards the apartment the siblings were staying in while they were in Leaf. While Sakura didn't think they weren’t breaking any rules or anything, it still felt strange to enter the apartment building knowing everyone else there was a Sand shinobi. 

Gaara seemed oblivious to the rising tension, getting more and more excited as they near their destination. When they could see the door, he grabbed Naruto’s hand and dragged him along, bursting into the apartment and loudly introducing Naruto. 

Their group followed after them and Sakura got her first glimpse of the famed Iruka. He didn’t look particularly powerful or anything. He had a facial scar, but that wasn’t especially rare in their line of work. What was surprising was how he handled Naruto. He had crouched down to greet him and seemed honestly delighted to have him over for dinner. Sakura knew that shinobi were masters of deception and she shouldn’t trust anyone too easily, but she felt herself being drawn in by the sheer warmth this man seemed to give off. It was easy to see why Gaara and his siblings were so taken with him. The others must have been taken in at least somewhat as well, otherwise there is no way Tenten and Sasuke would have left Naruto alone with Gaara, even if they were just in the next room. And Sakura’s opinion of Iruka just kept climbing. When Lee told him he couldn’t manipulate chakra, his response hadn’t been pity or disbelief, but just a calm acceptance of the fact followed by a compliment to Lee’s strength. Even Sakura had doubted that Lee could achieve his goal before she had seen him in action, but Iruka hadn’t shown any indication of that.

It was clear that Iruka was used to having some of the siblings help him in the kitchen because he was quite quick to delegate tasks as needed but still retain some oversight of everyone. Not that any of them were going to cut themselves with a knife or anything, but it made Sakura feel safe. Perhaps that was the most amazing thing about Iruka. He was able to treat them as both children and shinobi at the same time, when everyone else had always treated her as one or the other. Her parents still saw her as a child, regardless of the fact that she was risking her life on missions. They still tried to prescribe her a bedtime and treated her like she didn’t understand the harsh realities of life. Kakashi, on the other hand, had treated them like shinobi from the first day they met. She loved her teacher and she had learned so much under his instruction, but she would never feel comfortable going to him with her insecurities. Iruka managed to do both. He teased Kankuro and Temari, ruffled their hair, and hovered when Kankuro started waving his knife around while telling a story. But he also asked them about the missions they had gone on without shying away from the death they had seen and dealt out. Sakura could understand how this man could get through the Gaara when no one before him could.

She knew the others had come to a similar conclusion. Well Lee probably liked him from the start because that’s who Lee was, but he was able to get Sasuke to talk a little bit about his training routines and compared sealing techniques with Tenten.

As Temari was recounting Kankuro’s first attempts with making a trip-wire over his claims that she was exaggerating, Gaara entered the kitchen. “Iruka, is dinner done yet? Naruto’s really hungry.” Naruto, who had followed Gaara in, looked like he was about to protest but Iruka didn’t give him a chance.

“Yes, we just got done. Baki, grab the plates would you?” The man Temari had introduced as their jonin instructor nodded and busied himself getting dishes for everyone. He hadn’t spoken much while they were cooking but didn’t seem too put off by their presence. Sakura knew Kakashi would have been very concerned if any of them had invited foreign shinobi to their homes. Of course, he would probably be equally concerned with the idea of them going to strange shinobi’s apartments without telling anyone, but she would deal with those consequences when Naruto inevitably couldn’t keep his mouth shut at practice tomorrow.

The table definitely didn’t have room for all of them, but no one minded eating on the floor. Kankuro spent most of dinner recounting their most impressive pranks, with Naruto throwing in his own stories. As soon as he heard of some of the seals Iruka had taught them, Naruto had asked Iruka to show him, which Iruka agreed to without hesitation. Of course, he wouldn’t let them practice any of the more destructive seals inside the apartment, but he did show them a bunch of different seals and talk through how they are constructed and what they are usual for. Sakura was pretty sure Tenten was not going to leave Iruka alone for the rest of his time in Leaf, but given how pleased he looked at her questions, she didn’t think he would mind.

Iruka did let them try a couple of seals, one of which created a flash and loud bang, apparently very useful for causing a distraction. Naruto’s blew up, but not at all in the way it was intended to.

Iruka laughed, “Sorry about, I should have realized your chakra would overpower it. Here, this is the version I made for Gaara to use, hopefully it will work better.” Naruto took in with awe, and tried again. This time it worked perfectly. “I don’t have large chakra reserves so all my seals are crafted to use as little chakra as possible,” Iruka explained. “It works great for when you’re fighting off your third attacker of the day, not so great when you’re a jinchuriki with more chakra than you know what to do with. I had to adapt most of my seal designs for Gaara for that same reason.”

That cemented what Sakura had been thinking ever since she got to the apartment: Iruka was not a threat, at least not to Naruto. She had no doubt anyone who tried to hurt Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari would face his wrath, but he honestly wanted the best for Naruto. She was so used to Mizuki who yelled at all of them, particularly Naruto, when they got something wrong but never helped them figure out their mistake. Iruka not only didn’t get mad, but gave Naruto a different seal that played to his strengths more. Sakura might have been willing to trust him for that reason alone. But even more than that, to have completely redesigned all of his seals just so Gaara could use them, Iruka must really love him. And it was obvious that Gaara already cared a great deal about Naruto. So Iruka would never do anything to hurt Naruto because that would hurt Gaara. 

After dinner, everyone broke off into smaller groups. Temari looked flabbergasted as Lee described his training routine to her. Tenten and Iruka were discussing seal theory. Sasuke was having a stilted conversation with Baki, while Gaara regaled Naruto with tales Shukaku was telling him. Sakura had worked up the courage to ask Kankuro about his techniques and was delighted that he was willing to share some of the basics with her. While she was pondering how to work some of the concepts into her own fighting, someone knocked on the door. Everyone tensed up. Even though they weren’t technically doing anything wrong, she knew they really shouldn’t be here, eating dinner and swapping stories with people who were their enemies.

Baki moved towards the door, while Iruka rose to his feet and moved to put himself between the door and them. When Baki opened the door, Sakura couldn’t say she was surprised to see Kakashi. It made sense that he was the one sent to fetch them. “Hello, my genin, so this is where you’ve gotten to,” he commented, brushing past Baki to enter. Gai followed behind him. Kakashi walked right up to Iruka. “And who might you be?”

Iruka didn’t look too intimidated for having the weight of Kakashi’s stare on him. “I’m Iruka, I’m guessing you are Kakashi? It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Indeed,” replied Kakshi. “Now please explain why you lured five Leaf genin to your apartment?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the image of Kankuro holding a raccoon in front of Gaara while Naruto and friends looked on in confusion popped into my head while I was writing the early chapters of Belonging and has not left it since. I honestly wasn't sure I was going to make this a series, but once I had that image in mind, I knew I needed to get to the point where I could write it. Don't know what that says about my motivations as a writer, but eh. I'm having a good time. I spent the entire time I was writing that scene giggling to myself so I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.
> 
> I feel that out of everyone, Sakura would be the most interested in puppets, since I would think they would require excellent chakra control, and that is Sakura's jam. 
> 
> The siblings are completely unconcerned about getting caught insulting the Kazekage. They already made him think they were planning a coup for years. It's not like they're hiding their low opinion of him.


	6. Chapter 6

Just as Iruka finished talking Tenten through the time release aspect of an exploding tag that went off twice, he sensed two people hurrying in their direction. They were probably Leaf shinobi, due to his unfamiliarity with their chakra. And given that one of them felt almost like a civilian’s, he guessed that would be the Gai person Lee talked so highly of. Which meant, the other one was likely the jonin instructor for the other three children in his apartment, Kakashi the copy-nin. Iruka really would have liked to have avoided this much attention for at least their first 24-hours in Leaf, but once Gaara had brought Naruto and his friends over, he had let that hope die. 

Iruka caught Baki’s eyes and jerked his head to the door, so Baki wouldn’t be caught off guard. Moments later, when the knock rang out, Baki was already heading towards the door while Iruka put himself between the kids and the doorway. From the stories the kids had told him, it didn’t seem like Kakashi actively wished them harm, but Iruka didn’t think much of his ability to look out for the kids’ best interest. Gaara needed Naruto and Naruto needed Gaara. Plus Iruka had already developed a soft spot for Tenten. And it seemed like the others were getting along well with Kankuro and Tenten. If Iruka had to fight (verbally or physically) one of the most powerful Leaf shinobi to protect those relationships, then he would.

And Iruka’s opinion of the man did not increase as he walked into the room. He brushed past Baki, did a cursory glance towards the kids, and glanced over Iruka before seeming to dismiss him as a threat. The line he threw out conveyed more annoyance at having been sent after the kids then actual concern for their safety. And he got right up in Iruka’s face like every other jonin who thought they could intimidate him through their higher rank. Iruka could see that Kakashi had already scanned the room and decided that Baki was the main threat. Not that Iruka minded being underestimated, he had practically made his career on it. But it was still irritating. 

So he put on his best dealing-with-useless-supervisors smile and introduced himself. I’m “Iruka, I’m guessing you are Kakashi? It is a pleasure to meet you.” Iruka was not surprised when the man ignored his introduction and jumped straight to business. Although he did take issue with the word lured. He certainly didn’t lure anyone here and Gaara didn’t have any underhanded motivations in inviting Naruto over, he just wanted to make friends.

Iruka doubled-down on the smiling and replied, “I assure you, we had no ill intentions. Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari ran into your team while they were out exploring the village. They found out that they shared some things in common and invited them over for dinner. Lee and Tenten were able to join us. We had a lovely dinner, your team was quite helpful in the kitchen, and were just discussing various techniques when you barged in.” He knew Kakashi would soon know, if he hadn’t already figured it out, that Gaara was a jinchuriki, but he certainly wasn’t going to make the jonin’s job any easier by giving away that information. Let Kakashi draw his own conclusions.

“It’s true,” Tenten voiced. “They’ve been very nice and Iruka has been showing me some new seals that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.”

The man who Iruka was now completely sure was Gai promptly burst into tears, “I am so pleased that you are aiding my students in achieving the full potential of their springtime of youth!” Which caused Lee to burst into tears and begin yelling as well. Iruka now fully understood why Tenten said stealth missions never went well for them.

Kakashi ignored the theatrics around them, finally focusing most of his attention on Iruka. But he didn’t actually ask Iruka anything else, instead saying, “Well regardless, it’s getting late and I believe it is time for them to leave for the night. I’m not sure why they thought it would be a good idea to enter the apartment of unknown shinobis without telling anyone where they were going, but rest assured it will not happen again.” Iruka really wanted to punch this man. On one level, he could understand that this looked very sketchy. Sand was not known for their friendly nature and despite whatever pretensions they might put on, at the end of the day, the villages were more enemies than allies. But Gaara had seemed happier tonight than Iruka had ever seen him. Just being near Naruto smoothed an ache that no one else could. And Kakashi was going to take that away from them. 

Before Iruka could think of any counter-arguments, Naruto spoke up, “ Okay, Kakashi, we won’t do it again.” Gaara’s face fell, but then Naruto continued, “I’m coming back over tomorrow night. Gaara said that would be alright.” He glanced over at Iruka who nodded happily, understanding what Naruto was doing. “So know you know that I’ll be here, so there shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Iruka had to resist the temptation to burst out laughing. He knew that that was far from the only reason Kakashi did not want his team around him and the kids, but it was the one Kakashi had articulated, and now he was stuck. Iruka hadn’t known Naruto for very long but he did know the boy was stubborn and kind to his core. He wouldn’t accept the explanation that he shouldn’t be around them just because they were from Sand.

“Well then I guess we’ll see you tomorrow night,” Iruka replied, smiling widely and ignoring Kakashi’s glare. “Tenten, Lee, Sasuke, and Sakura, you are welcome back as well. Your teachers are welcome to join us if they so wish as well,” he extended the invitation. Gai gleefully accepted while Kakashi merely narrowed his eyes and left without replying.

After everyone from Leaf left, yelling back thanks for dinner and see you soons, Kankuro looked around and said, “Well I’d call today a resounding success.”

“Elaborate,” Temari instructed, face-planting on the couch.

“Well we met another jinchuriki, Gaara was able to befriend him, we got pretty close to some of his friends and they are seem like nice people and they promised to come back soon, dinner was delicious, nobody tried to kill us, and I got to hold a raccoon in Gaara’s face,” Kankuro explained.

Iruka was rather amused at the lists, before processing the last item on it, “I’m sorry, you did what?” Which led to Kankuro gleefully recounting how it was exactly that they had met Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. “I’m amazed they were willing to follow you back here after that,” Iruka commented, burying his face in his hands. He really hoped this didn’t get back to the fake-Kazekage because that was not a conversation he wanted to have.

“At least they knew what they were getting into right from the start,” Baki pointed out, looking resigned. After some more good-natured squabbling, Iruka told the kids to get ready for bed and collapsed on the couch beside Baki.

“See Gaara really didn’t kidnap anyone,” Iruka bragged.

“This time,” Baki replied. “But you can’t tell me that you don’t think he might if he met another jinchuriki who wasn’t as willing to be friends from the start.” Iruka couldn’t deny he had a point. Gaara was very committed to making friends, to the point that he would probably scare the people he was trying to make friends with.

“So Kakashi,” Baki started, wrangling his one visible eyebrow at Iruka. 

Iruka punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t even start.” Iruka had known Baki would say something about the Leaf jonin. For initially treating Maki’s suggestion as a joke plan, he loved to tease Iruka with it. “Besides, he obviously doesn't like me and the feeling is mutual. He definitely wouldn’t trust me enough to let me see important documents anytime soon.”

“True,” Baki conceded, “I’d suggested asking Gai for it, but given how similar he is to Lee, I’m guessing he would mention that you had asked about it to the next person he saw.” Iruka nodded, he had come to the same conclusion. 

“If nothing else, Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari made some new friends today, and that’s enough for now,” Iruka stated.

Baki agreed. Some after the two of them decided to turn in for the night themselves. It had been a long day and while Iruka was relieved to have told his friends the news about the Kazekage, the fact that they were no closer to figuring out the imposter’s identity was frustrating. 

Iruka was not surprised to see that Gaara was still up and waiting for him when he entered their room. He got into bed and Gaara instantly curled up alongside him.

“Were you glad you got to meet Naruto today?” Iruka asked.

Gaara nodded. “Yeah, I like Naruto a lot. He’s really nice even if Shukaku says Kurama is an arrogant asshole.” Iruka laughed at that. Shukaku had given him a rundown of all his siblings one time and had a lot to say about Kurama, little of it good. “He told me he grew up in an orphanage. That he didn’t even know he was a jinchuriki until last year. He didn’t know why most people in the village hated him, just that they did. And he loves his friends and they try their best to take care of him. But he never knew his parents and never had someone who filled that role. When I first met him and told him all about you, he said you sounded amazing. You convinced me, Temari, and Kankuro to give each other a chance, you fixed my seal and helped Shukaku, you never gave up on me.” By the end, his face was buried in Iruka’s shoulder and he could barely hear the next words, “What would I be without you?”

Iruka wrapped his arms securely around Gaara and answered honestly, “I don’t know. I don’t know what the Kazekage would have done if I hadn’t become your first caretaker to live for over a month. I don’t know how you would have bonded with Temari or Kankuro or who would have fixed your seal. But there are some things I know for sure,” here he pulled back slightly so he could look Gaara in the eye. “I know you would have survived whatever the Kazekage threw at you. I know you, Temari, and Kankuro would have found each other and become a family. I know you would overcome all the hatred that has been thrown at you. I know you would become someone I am proud of, no matter what. And I know all these things because I know you. I know your kindness, your strength, your perseverance. Those things make up the core of who you are. I did not create them, that was you, I just helped nurture them. What scares me the most about a world where I was not by your side is not that you would become a monster and slaughter your allies, but that you would have to grow up steeped in that hatred without someone to protect you.” Iruka realized he had started crying halfway through his speech. The idea of Gaara growing up with only the Kazekage’s disapproval and caregivers who feared him and didn’t try to understand him broke his heart. “And Gaara, I don’t know who I would be without you either.” Gaara smiled at that and cuddled close to Iruka before dozing off. Iruka knew the topic was far from resolved, but it seemed like his words had reassured Gaara. And he would keep offering Gaara all the support he could for as long as he needed it. 

That morning Iruka waved Baki and the kids off for their training session. He’d probably join them later but for now he wanted to take a look around Leaf. He wanted to get a better sense of the village and the people in it so he could plan his next move. He wondered around the streets for a bit before ducking into the library. He browsed for a little bit, but sadly did not find anything that would be helpful in identifying the imposter. Not that he was surprised, Leaf wouldn’t leave that sort of information laying around where anyone could access. 

Iruka left and decided to stop at the market before going to meet the kids. Gaara mentioned Naruto really liked ramen, so he would make that tonight. He decided he would let Naruto help in the kitchen, and just keep a close eye on him to prevent any catastrophes. 

Iruka had purchased just about everything he needed when he heard someone yelling his name. He turned around to see Naruto and Sakura running towards him with Sasuke trailing behind. “Hello, how are you doing today?” Iruka asked them.

“Hi, Iruka, we’re bored,” Naruto complained. “Kakashi never showed up at our meeting spot and we’re trained against each other so many times that it’s not really fun anymore.” Iruka raised his eyebrow at that. The chunin exams would begin in just a few days. What could possibly be more important to Kakashi than training his students? “So we decided to go and see if any of our friends were free to practice with us. Lee is working on something with Gai and Tenten said she wanted to work on a few moves on her own. Ino had said her, Shikamaru, and Choji had a special training session today, so they’re busy. But we thought maybe Hinata, Kiba, and Shino would train with us.” Iruka nodded along, although he had no idea who most of these people were. He made a mental note to ask Naruto more about his friends tonight. He wanted to know more about the children who had stuck by Naruto for years and obviously tried to protect him from the village’s hatred. 

“That sounds like a good plan,” Iruka told him. As much as he wanted to invite them to train with Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, that was probably going to send up red flags to the anbu he sensed watching them. He would probably be accused of attempting to steal techniques or something like that. And he didn’t want to push too far and make it so Naruto and his friends could not come to their apartment. “Are you still coming over for dinner tonight?”

Naruto nodded eagerly. “Tenten, Lee, and Gai said they were coming over too. Oh, Sasuke you coming too?” The dark haired boy nodded, still glaring at Iruka, as he had since he had seen him. 

“I unfortunately can’t make it tonight. My parents are back in the village and they wanted to have a family dinner tonight,” Sakura explained. “But I would like to continue my discussion with Kankuro about puppeteering at another time.”

“I’m sure he would like that too,” Iruka responded. 

Just then someone called out Naruto’s name. Iruka caught sight of a brunette boy barreling towards them, with a puppy at his heels. “Hey, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke,” the boy greeted. “What’s this I hear about you having dinner with some shinobi from Sand? How did you meet them? What are they like? Why were you eating with them?” It was only after that string of questions and a bark from the dog that the boy noticed Iruka and his forehead protector. “Oh, hi. I’m Kiba and this is Akamaru.”

Iruka hid his smile, not wanting Kiba to think he was making fun of him. “Nice to meet you, Kiba and Akamaru. I’m Iruka. And yes, the three of them plus Lee and Tenten did have dinner with me and my kids last night.” Iruka turned back to examine the vegetables at the next stand while Sakura explained most of the situation to Kiba. About half-way through her explanation, two other kids arrived, prompting another round of introductions and Sakura restarting her speech. Iruka watched out of the corner of his eye as the kids furtively whispered to each other, sending glances his way every few seconds. It was cute that they thought they were being subtle. 

Iruka eventually acquired everything he needed and decided to head back to the apartment. “Well I’ll see you later tonight, Naruto and Sasuke. Anyone else is welcome to join us as well, as long as it is alright with your families.” Iruka might not know much about Leaf, but these were clearly clan children and he really did not need a bunch of their clan members to break into their apartment because they thought he had kidnapped one of their kids. 

“I don’t think I will be able to make it, but it was nice to meet you,” Hinata replied. Iruka smiled gently at her. She seemed like a sweet girl.

“I’ll check with my mom, but I think she’ll be alright with it,” Kiba said. “You’re in the apartments on the west side of the village right? Akamaru can find you from there."

“I will ask my father,” Shino promised. Iruka waved them good-bye and set off towards the apartment while the kids went in the opposite direction to train. 

Iruka put away everything he had gotten on his trip. It was lucky that he had been able to save up his money over the past few years, since the house and their food was all paid for. That was the one thing the Kazekage ever did that helped Iruka. He would definitely be digging into his savings if he kept feeding five or more Leaf shinobi each night. Not that he was complaining. They were sweet kids and it was good for the siblings to have the chance to make friends. Beyond Mari, they were not close to anyone their age except each other. 

Iruka dropped the ingredients off at the apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon helping the siblings train. Even Iruka, with all his worries, had to admit that he felt confident in their ability to overcome whatever the exams might throw at them. Each one of them was powerful in their own right and they worked together extremely well. 

Once it started to get dark, Iruka ushered everyone home so they could start making dinner. He mentioned running into some of Naruto’s friends in the marketplace earlier to the others so they wouldn’t be surprised if others showed up. Iruka and the kids were just finishing preparations for cooking when there was an extremely loud knock at the door. Baki opened it to admit Lee, Tenten, and Gai. 

“Hi,” Tenten greeted them, “Naruto and Sasuke should be over soon, they were just finishing up training. How was your day?”

Iruka let their conversation fade to the background as he double-checked that he had all the ingredients and got out all the pots he would need. 

Sure enough, Naruto and Sasuke showed up a few minutes later, arguing about something. Gaara immediately detached himself from the conversation to greet them and talk to Naruto. Naruto eagerly recounted how his day went and got swept up in conversation with Gaara. Iruka forced himself not to laugh at Sasuke’s annoyed expression. It was clear he was used to being the center of Naruto’s attention and he did not like the change. 

“Iruka, I get to help tonight, right?” Naruto bounced over to him. “What are we making?”

“Well someone mentioned you liked ramen, and since it is also one of my favorite foods, I decided to make that,” Iruka told him. 

Naruto tilted his head, “But why do you need all these dishes if we're just having cup ramen?”

“We’re not having cup ramen,” Iruka explained, getting more concerned about what Naruto considered a decent meal. “Cup ramen is all well and good for a quick meal once in a while but I would definitely not serve it to guests. No, we’re making real ramen.”

Naruto’s face lit up, “Like the kind Teuchi makes? You can make that at home?” Iruka guessed Teuchi was the owner of the ramen stand he had seen earlier.

“Most things you get at restaurants you can make at home if you are willing to put in a little extra work,” Iruka told him. “So I appreciate your help. Now, you think you can help me with the broth?” Kankuro and Sasuke were assigned to the vegetables, Temari and Tenten took over cooking the meat, and Lee and Gaara handled the noodles. Gai and Baki were having a very spirited discussion in the corner. Or at least very spirited on Gai’s part. Baki mostly looked confused.

Iruka quickly understood why Tenten was hesitant to allow Naruto into the kitchen. The boy was a trouble magnet. He really was trying his best so Iruka wasn’t going to kick him out, but he felt like keeping everyone safe from Naruto’s chaos was harder than some of the missions he had been on. Within the first few minutes, he nearly knocked over a pot, lit a dish towel on fire, and kept mixing up what amount they needed for what ingredient. Iruka was luckily able to prevent any disasters and salvage the broth, but it was a struggle. But he couldn’t bring himself to ask Naruto to leave the kitchen. He looked so happy to be allowed to help. And with everyone helping make dinner, Iruka could focus most of his attention on keeping Naruto out of trouble. 

Just as they were getting ready to combine everything, someone knocked on that door. Iruka put Temari in charge in the kitchen and had Naruto come with him to see who it was. He opened the door to see the two boys he met earlier, Kiba and Shino, as well as Akamaru and a large black dog with an eyepatch as well. Iruka stepped back to allow them to come in, “Hi, you’re just in time. Dinner should be ready momentarily.”

“Hi, thanks for having us. This is Kuromaru, my mom’s partner. She doesn’t believe I can stay out of trouble so she sent him with me,” Kiba reported. 

Kuromaru nudged Kiba with his head, “Given your track record, Tsume has a point, pup.” Iruka tried to hide his surprised reaction to Kuromaru talking. He had heard stories of nin dogs that could talk, but no one in Sand used them, and he had always thought they were just that-stories. Kiba just rolled his eyes. Kuromaru turned to Iruka, “It is good to meet you, Iruka. And nice to see you again, Naruto.”

“Hi, Kuromaru,” Naruto greeted him, obviously familiar with the dog. 

Iruka returned to the kitchen to start dishing up the ramen, when he had a thought. “Kuromaru, what do you and Akamaru eat?” Iruka was not sure if they needed a special type of food. He doubted they would want to eat ramen.

Kuromaru gave him a rather toothy grin, “If you have any raw meat available, we certainly would not say no to that.” Iruka was glad he had gotten some extra meat at the marketplace today. He had planned on using it tomorrow, but he could always go back to the market. He wasn’t going to let anyone who came to his place go hungry, regardless of who they were.

Luckily, Kiba and Shino seemed just fine with eating on the floor. Iruka ended up beside Kankuro, who was having a discussion with Shino about their techniques. Iruka was glad Kankuro had found someone else who used long-range attacks and had to compensate for their weaknesses in close range battles. Kankuro wasn’t close to any of the other puppeteers and most Sand shinobi focused more on close corridor combat, so it was good he found someone to talk strategy with. On his side, Temari and Tenten were swapping stories about their teammates. They seemed to be trying to one up each other, since each story got progressively wilder. Of course, Iruka could confirm that all of Temari’s stories were true and given what he had seen of Lee and Gai, he guessed Tenten’s were as well. Speaking of Lee, he was talking to Sasuke, waving his hands as he told a story. Iruka was glad to see that Sasuke was relaxing in his presence. It wasn’t good for him to be so on guard all the time, although he knew many shinobi would disagree with him. Baki and Gai were continuing their conversation from earlier, which seemed more two-sided this time so Iruka guessed Baki had gotten used to Gai’s mannerisms by now. 

Kiba and Naruto were trying their best to get Akamaru, who had already finished his dinner, comfortable with Gaara. Akamaru had just let Gaara pet him when Iruka heard a thump next to him. He turned to see that Kuromaru had sprawled out next to him.

“They’re good kids,” he commented, also watching Akamaru itch closer to Gaara, with Kiba and Naruto’s enthusiastic encouragement.

“Yeah, they are,” Iruka replied, smiling at them fondly.

“I’m guessing you figured out that I’m not just here to keep Kiba out of trouble?” Kuromaru asked.

Iruka smiled, “Yeah, I figured. Don’t worry, I won’t take offense. I would be pretty concerned too if a foreign shinobi I had never met invited my kids over for dinner.”

Kuromaru nodded. “Kiba’s got good instincts and Akamaru helps, but we wanted to make sure. And Naruto has become a standard presence at the compound over the years. We've grown quite fond of him. Beyond just making sure you aren’t a physical threat, Tsume wanted me to check if you would be a threat to Naruto’s mental and emotional well-being.”

Iruka spoke honestly when he said he wasn’t insulted. He was glad that there were others who were also looking after Naruto’s well-being. As wonderful as his friends were, having adults he could go to was also important. And he doubted his jonin teacher really made himself available for emotional conversations. He double-checked and sure enough, there was Kakashi, perched on a roof-top a few houses down. Iruka had sensed him the minute Naruto had burst through the door. He guessed the jonin had followed Naruto from his apartment. He would have been more willing to put up with the man’s antics if he thought Kakashi was doing it out of a sense of protectiveness over his team. But the man had hardly looked at his team when he had been in the apartment the other night and the way he was situated gave him a clear view of Baki and Iruka, but Iruka guessed he wouldn’t be able to see Naruto or Sasuke at all. It just felt like Kakashi was watching him because he was ordered to or because Iruka had dared to treat the kids as children. He had encountered many jonin who thought like that, and was not impressed with that line of thought. He much preferred Kuromaru’s style. He actually took the time to see how Iruka was interacting with the kids before making any judgments and he was up front with his motivations.

“I’m glad that Naruto and his friends have so many people watching out for them,” Iruka commented.

“We do what we can, which is less than it should be,” Kuromaru told him, but did not elaborate more on that. Iruka understood that they were probably limited by their Hokage’s instructions, whatever they were. Most people couldn’t get away with telling their kage to fuck off the way Iruka could. Iruka wasn’t part of a clan, didn’t have living family, and before becoming Gaara’s caretaker, had no close friends. Most people in the village thought Iruka was the only one preventing Gaara from rampaging like he did years ago. While that frustrated Iruka’s attempts to integrate Gaara with the village better, it did make it so the Kazekage was hesitant to get rid of him completely. A large clan would have a lot more to lose if they challenged their kage’s mandates.

Iruka and Kuromaru lapsed into silence, watching Akamaru gingerly climb into Gaara’s lap. Gaara looked as happy as Iruka had ever seen him. Naruto and Kiba were high fiving above his head while he gently petted Akamaru. 

Temari and Tenten had moved on to discussing their respective techniques and combined their conversation with Kankuro and Shino’s. They had even managed to rope Sasuke and Lee into it. Iruka smiled looking at them. It was hard to believe that he had only known some of the Leaf kids for 24 hours, and others much less than that. They looked like they belonged there in Iruka’s temporary apartment, talking with his kids. Soon they would all be taking the chunin exams and Iruka would need to solve the problem of the imposter. But for now, Iruka let himself relax and enjoy the night. He would do everything he could to ensure that they could have more nights like this. He wanted to meet the rest of Naruto’s friends. To arrange a get together that Hinata could attend. He also wanted to get a look at Naruto’s seal. It really was odd that Naruto didn’t sense anything from Kurama. But that could wait until after the exams. He didn’t want to do anything that could throw Naruto off right before he would be fighting for his life.

As much as Iruka would have loved to have the Leaf kids stay the night, that would definitely get him a visit from specific leaf jonin and he’d rather avoid that. So as the sun set, he waved them off. Kuromaru had nodded at him as he left before nudging Kiba, who was carrying a sleeping Akamaru, along. Gai gathered up Lee, who had nodded off about half an hour ago and ushered Naruto and Tenten out into the street. Shino had bowed and formally thanked Iruka, who had waved him off and told him he was welcome back anytime, before leaving as well. 

Washing the last of the dishes, Iruka wasn’t surprised to still feel Kakashi’s presence on his perch. That just confirmed his suspicions that he was there on orders or because he thought Iruka was a threat to the village. He took his time tidying things up in the living room. If Kakashi wanted to confront him, he would give him the chance. But after almost 30 minutes, Iruka decided to go to bed. Apparently, he just wanted to watch the apartment creepily. 

When Iruka entered his room, Gaara was sitting on the bed, apparently deep in thought. He looked up as Iruka closed the door and commented, “The exams begin in a few days.”

“Yes, they do,” Iruka responded, waiting for Gaara to say what was really bothering him. He knew Gaara was not worried about the exams. And while Iruka worried because it was his job as a parent, he too felt pretty confident in his kids’ ability to succeed.

“The plan is supposed to be carried out during the last phase of the exams,” Gaara said. Iruka was quite glad he had made a habit of throwing up a silencing barrier around his room and had activated it as soon as he entered. Kakashi definitely did not need to overhear what was being said. “You are going to stop it, but Leaf is probably still doing to find out. Do you think Naruto will hate me when he realizes I didn’t tell him about the plan?”

Iruka sat down beside Gaara and pulled Gaara into his lap. He didn’t fit as well as he did when he was six. But he settled down quickly and tucked his head beneath Iruka’s chin. “I think Naruto of all people understands trying to do the best you can in a bad situation. He might get mad at first, but I believe he will forgive you.” Iruka truly did believe that. Naruto would see where Gaara was coming from and he didn’t seem like the type to hold grudges. Sasuke was a whole different story, but that wasn’t who Gaara had asked about. Iruka was deeply touched by the amount of trust Gaara was putting in him. He had said he would deal with the situation, but he was starting to feel worried that he wouldn’t be able to succeed. But since Gaara was counting on him to do so, he guessed he had no choice. “Let’s take things one step at a time. You worry about getting through the first stage of the exams, and I’ll worry about the invasion plan.” He also needed to figure out when to tell the kids the Kazekage was dead and replaced by the mastermind behind the invasion plan. But that could wait. Right now the exams were what they needed to be concerned with. “And then we’ll figure out how to handle the situation with Naruto once that’s all settled, okay?”

Gaara nodded, drawing back so he could look him in eye. “Iruka?”

“Yes?” Iruka replied.

“I’m going to make you proud,” Gaara said solemnly.

Iruka smiled and ruffled his hair, “You already do. Everyday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iruka has doubled down on being unimpressed with Kakashi. He's very fun to write when he's doing that.
> 
> Baki needed about 10 minutes to adjust to the amazing oddity that is Gai, but honestly, he's gotten very used to all kinds of weird behavior from Iruka and the kids over the years, so he has just learned to role with it. 
> 
> Next time will be Kankuro pov!


	7. Kankuro

“You have everything, right? You doubled-checked? Trip wire? Seals? Kankuro, you have your poisons? Oh good, Temari, you have your fan.”

Iruka had been going on like this for the past ten minutes. Kankuro had timed it. It was honestly impressive that he hadn’t run out of things to list. They knew him well enough that they realized there was no stopping him at this point, so it was better just to wait it out. 

“Iruka, I know you have checked their bags yourself. They have everything,” Baki eventually said as Iruka was winding down.

Iruka sighed and smiled at them, “I know. I just worry. Sorry for all the fussing.”

“We understand,” Temari replied. “We have everything. And don’t worry, I’ll look after these two and make sure they stay out of trouble.” 

Iruka smiled at that and grasped her shoulder, “I’ll be counting on you then. You know how good Kankuro is at finding trouble.” Kankuro would argue about that, but he was sure everyone would just bring up the raccoon incident from a few days ago (which was hilarious, his family just didn’t appreciate his genius), so he let it go.

“We should head out soon,” Baki cut it, always the responsible one.

“Alright,” Iruka nodded. He turned back towards them. “I am so proud of everything you have accomplished so far and can’t wait to see what you will do next. Be careful, there are things going on beyond just these exams. Take care of each other and I will see when you are done with these stages.”

Iruka then moved on to hugging each of them individually, starting with Gaara, he didn’t hear what Iruka whispered to him, but Kankuro could make out Gaara replying “I will.”

He hugged Temari next, who nodded along to whatever he said before turning to Kankuro. “Look after them. And try not to irritate them by picking up any stray wildlife, alright?” 

“You never let me have any fun,” Kankuro complained, although he made no move to draw back. Iruka’s hugs were the best. He never felt more safe or loved than when he was wrapped up in Iruka’s arms.

Baki cleared his throat and they all turned towards him, “Over the past year, I have been proud to be your jonin teacher, at least most of the time.” He gave them his small smile that it had taken months to coax out of him the first time. “I know you will keep making me proud.”

Iruka hugged them all one last time before they left. Only teams and their jonin teacher were allowed near the testing site, so Iruka couldn’t walk them to the first stage, although Kankuro was sure he wanted to. But it was probably better to say their emotional speeches at the apartment, away from prying eyes. It was finally time for the chunin exams and Kannkuro was so excited (and a little bit nervous). He wanted to get the chance to try Crow out against different opponents. His family was great and all, but he had fought them so many times that they knew each other’s moves by heart, so it wasn’t as exciting. But here he would be fighting people with styles he had never encountered. He couldn’t wait. 

Baki walked them to the building where the first round would be held, and waved them off. They had said all they needed to at the apartment, so there was no sense in dragging it out.

“Do you want to see if we can find Naruto before heading to the testing area?” Temari asked Gaara.

“Yes, please,” he replied, already walking towards the entrance. Temari and him exchanged fond looks behind Gaara's back. Their brother really was predictable. But they had spoken the truth to Sakura a couple days ago-they were glad Gaara had found Naruto. He looked more content now that he had another jinchuriki as a friend. And Kankuro wouldn’t let anyone, whether they were Naruto’s jonin teacher who Iruka was annoyed at or their damn father, mess this up for their brother. They had ignored Gaara when he needed them for years. That would not happen again. 

It did not take them long to find Naruto. They just went towards the sounds of yelling. Sure enough, there was Naruto and Lee getting excited together. Tenten was leaning against the wall looking at them fondly with Sasuke and Sakura beside her.

Sakura spotted them first, “Hey, are you ready for this?” she called out.

Temari smirked at her, “Of course. Are you?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes at that while Tenten cracked a smile. “Of course,” Sakura parroted back. Finally Lee and Naruto had got the shouting out of their system (for probably the next five minutes) and bounded over to greet them.

“We should probably get going,” Temari pointed out after a few minutes of idle chatter. “If we were late to the chunin exams and couldn’t take them because we were chit-chatting Baki might kill us.”

“Nah, Iruka would stop him,” Kankuro pointed out. “Although he would probably put us through some hell training sessions to get his point across and those are best avoided.” Kankuro liked Baki. He was pretty sure they were one of his first genin teams since he often looked unsure about what to do with them. Although that might be their fault. They didn’t socialize with other genin much beyond Maki, but Kankuro was pretty sure they weren’t anywhere close to a normal team. But Baki had taken that all into stride. And he treated Gaara as a person, not just a weapon, which was what really mattered. That’s not to say Baki never got annoyed at them. And when he was, he would put them through extra hard training. He always denied it was punishment, but the day they had dyed all his face clothes had been the worst training session they had ever had. After that, they dialed the pranks on Baki back a bit. They didn’t completely stop of course. They loved putting the skills Iruka had taught them to good use and Baki never really lost his temper with them, so he was a pretty safe target as far as pranks went. They just stayed away from his face clothes after that,

But Kankuro wanted to make Iruka and Baki proud of them. He knew Iruka had said he would be proud of them no matter what and Kankuro knew he meant that, but Iruka had done so much for them over the years. He’s the reason they were able to form the family they had. He protected them, taught all kinds of fun skills, made great food, and was always willing to lend an ear if they needed to talk about something. Kankuro knew most shinobi in Sand dismissed Iruka as weak, which annoyed Kankuro to no end. Iruka was a master of seals. He was the one who had been able to fix Gaara’s seal when so many before him had failed. And he was great at everything their instructors had drilled them on when they were younger: identifying and exploiting your enemies’ weaknesses, using your surroundings to your advantage, and sneak attacks. It didn’t make sense that Kankuro had overheard people mocking Iruka for using those tactics. They were valuable tools in a shinobi’s arsenal.

Iruka had rolled his eyes when he complained to him. “Some jonin get too caught up in their own power and forget what it is like to fight an enemy you know is stronger than you. They’ll regret it some day. Don’t you pay them any mind. And if I ever catch you thinking like that I will be very disappointed,” he warned. 

Kankuro had taken his words to heart, the way he did everything Iruka said. He practiced new moves over and over again until he could do them in his sleep before trying to use them in a real fight. He trained hard to conceal his position to avoid discovery but also practiced close combat without his puppets, even though he hated it because he knew he would be discovered eventually. It was part of the reason he wasn’t close to any of the other puppeteers his age, not that there were many to begin with. Although he would train at the puppeteer’s field, he did not put in as many hours there as other genin, instead spending those hours practicing traps or close-combat (or sometimes just hanging out with his siblings). The others took it as a lack of dedication to his craft and mocked him when they thought he couldn’t hear. But they didn’t understand. Practicing those other skills made him a better puppeteer. He could fight with everything he had with his puppets, without worrying incessantly that he would be discovered. Although that was still a concern, since Kankuro knew he was far from the best at close combat (Iruka also taught them it was important to have an accurate analysis of their strength and weaknesses), he did not fear it the way his peers did. He also threw up a few simple traps around his location, so those should at least give him the chance to get away if he did not think he could win against whoever was coming after him. Kankuro may not be quite what people expected of a puppeteer but he would show them that his oddities were not a weakness. 

“We’ll make him proud,” Temari said as they entered the exam room (The right one, of course. It had not taken any of them long to see through the trick with the room on the floor below.)

“Of course,” Gaara agreed.

Kankuro grinned at his siblings, “Let’s show them who Iruka raised us to be.”

The first stage of the exam was honestly pretty easy. Kankuro definitely did not know any of the answers to these questions, although Temari might have known a few. But that didn’t matter. He knew Gaara would find one of the plants and copy their answer with his sand eye. Sure enough, about ten minutes into the exam, his sand bracelet twitched. Gaara had been able to make ones for Kankuro and Temari a few months after he gave Iruka his. Maintaining Iruka’s had exhausted him at first, so it had taken a bit before he was able to make more. But once he had been able to, he had immediately made one each for Temari and Kankuro and they had never come off since. 

In the beginning, Gaara could really only use them to locate them within a certain range and he would know if they were cut off. But over the years, he had learned to have much finer control over his sand. Now he could use the bracelets to send them messages in their own modified code. And they could send messages back by tapping patterns on the bracelets. Gaara had given Baki one as well and the bracelets had become their main form of communication on stealth missions.

So completing the test was quite easy for them and they finished with lots of time left. Kankuro glanced around to see how everyone else was doing (being very careful to avoid looking at anyone’s papers. If he got them kicked out after they had already completed the test, Temari would kill him). Kiba and Akamaru were a few seats ahead of him, and given how Akamaru was perched on the top of Kiba’s head, Kankuro was pretty sure he knew how they were cheating. He couldn’t see Shino, but given his bugs he doubted he would have any problems passing. He wasn’t sure about their other team member, Hinata he believed her name was, but he was sure she would be fine. Kiba said she was really smart and more devious than people gave her credit for. 

Lee and Tenten’s scheme was pretty easy to spot, although Kankuro did take the time to observe their third teammate more closely. Neji had come up several times over the last few days. For someone Lee declared his eternal rival, he seemed rather boring. And from Tenten’s description of him, he sounded like a stuck-up jerk. Then again, Gai had mentioned Kakashi was his eternal rival, and Iruka also did his scary smile whenever Kakashi was mentioned, so maybe they just had poor taste in eternal rivals. 

Sakura was frantically writing to his left. Out of everyone he knew, Kankuro picked her as being the most likely to be able to answer at least some of the questions without having to resort to cheating. She was smart. Not that Kankuro hadn’t met smart people before: Iruka designed all these amazing seals plus he knew practically everything there was to know about cacti, Mari was the best healer ever and knew the human body better than anyone he had ever met, and Temari was no slouch either. But Sakura just seemed to absorb knowledge at a ridiculous rate. When he was explaining to her the basics of puppeteering, she had been able to understand more in one conversation than Kankuro had in his first month of working with his puppets. It was a little scary.

Sasuke had finished by the time Kankuro looked over, so he wasn’t quite sure what he had done but he guessed the Sharingan was involved. And then there was Naruto. He had been blankly staring at his piece of paper for the entire time Kankuro had been sneaking glances at him. Kankuro would bet his favorite jar of poison paint that he didn’t have a single answer written down and hadn’t figured out the trick either. Naruto wasn’t dumb, but from what Kankuro had observed over the past few days, he was very straight-forward. He probably got so caught up in being worried about the test that it didn’t occur to him that he was supposed to cheat. 

But Kankuro didn’t worry too much about it. He trusted that Naruto would find a way to make it through. And he was proven right, in a truly spectacular fashion. Kankuro figured the tenth question was a trick as soon as he heard it. There was no way that was a sustainable practice. And he doubted any of the teams they knew would back out at that point. Sure enough, as he glanced around, Sasuke was slouching in his chair, Sakura was looking straight ahead, looking determined. Kiba just looked bored while Tenten and Lee both looked excited for the next step. And Naruto outdid them all, with his little speech. 

Kankuro could understand why Gaara was so drawn to Naruto, beyond just him also being a jinchuriki. He didn’t know much about Naruto’s childhood but what he had managed to piece together did not paint a pretty picture. As selfish as it was, hearing about it made Kankuro think how glad he was that Gaara had Iruka to protect him and care for him. But Naruto just kept getting back up no matter what the village threw at him. His straightforward manner helped him inspire others to push themselves right along with him. He drew people in, without even realizing it. 

And then they were moving right along to the second stage of the exams. Temari had been the one to accept their scroll, which was probably a good choice. Kankuro was self-away enough to admit that he was a little bit too curious at times and would have been very tempted to open it. 

“After this stage, we’ll get to see Iruka again,” Gaara said happily as they were running through the Forest of Death (Kankuro had a lot of questions about how that was created. Did all these dangerous plants and animals just naturally form here? Leaf soil must be really strange then. Or maybe they just dumped a bunch of dead bodies as fertilizer and these plants sprung up? Or did someone specifically wake up one day and decide they were going to make the most deadly forest in existence? If that was the case, he wanted to meet that person. They must be awesome). By unexpressed mutual agreement, they had veered away from any of the Leaf teams. There were plenty of teams to steal scrolls from in the forest, they didn’t need to risk causing bad feelings from any friends by knocking them out of the exams. 

“Let’s get closer to the tower and then rest for the night,” Temari suggested. “We’ll have a better chance of finding other teams that way.” Kankuro and Gaara agreed without hesitation. They spent the next few hours running in the direction of the tower. They didn’t meet any other teams, but Kankuro did nearly get bitten by a rather aggressive sunflower, which was exciting. He wondered if after the exams were over and Iruka had dealt with the stupid invasion plans and their father, he could get someone from Leaf to tell him more about the plants in the forest. Some of them must produce amazing poisons. 

They settled down for the night in a small clearing near a river. Although they were in the open, with the seals Iruka had taught them, they were able to hide their presence. No one should be able to tell that they were there unless they actually walked into their camp. And they set up a ring of seals beyond their camp’s boundaries that would alert them if anyone drew near. They ate some rations they had brought with them, not willing to risk eating anything from the forest. 

With their seals in place, they decided not to set watches for the night. They would need their rest in the days to come and they trusted Iruka’s seals to keep them safe. Besides, Gaara’s automatic defense system had expanded over the years and would now protect Temari and Kankuro if they were within its range without Gaara needing to consciously order it to. So they were as safe as they could be under the circumstances.

Kankuro flopped down on the ground, with Gaara quickly joining him and resting his arms on Kankuro’s arm. Temari pulled a blanket out of her pack before lying down on Gaara’s other side and draping the blanket over all three of them. Kankuro listened to Gaara’s breathing, used to waiting until he felt Gaara’s breath even out before he allowed himself to drop off to sleep. Gaara had been separated from Iruka many times due to both their missions, but the first night they were separated again alway bothered him. He never expressly said so, but Kankuro knew him well enough to see he was slightly more agitated than usual. And he knew Temari could tell too. So one or both of them would usually stay with Gaara at least until he fell asleep those nights. On missions that was easy, since they all usually slept in bedrolls near each. And then they were in the village, they would either sleep over in Gaara’s room or chat with him until he fell asleep. Kankuro had to admit it felt kind of nice. Not that he wanted Gaara to be upset because Iruka was gone, but because it was one of the few times he felt like he was actually helping Gaara. Iruka was amazing and Kankuro loved him fiercely and was grateful for everything he had done for Gaara. But Iruka was there for him before Kankuro and Temari even started seeing Gaara as their brother and since Iruka was always there for him, Gaara always went to Iruka with any problems he had instead of seeking out Temari or Kankuro. Kankuro knew his brother loved them and had forgiven them for how they acted before Iruka came along, but he couldn’t help but still feel guilty for it. He had made a promise to himself that night he and Temari had moved in with Gaara and Iruka: no matter what happened in the future, he would protect his brother and his happiness from whoever threatened it. 

He woke up to Temari shaking him awake. She had always had a good internal clock. Given how thick the canopy was in this part of the forest, Kankuro honestly couldn’t tell that the sun had risen, but if she said it was morning, he believed her. Gaara was already up and eating some of their rations. Kankuro gratefully took the bread Gaara offered him. As entertaining as this forest was, he couldn’t wait to be out of here so he could eat Iruka’s cooking again. 

“We should find a spot to lay a trap,” Temari suggested as they finished packing up their camp. “The sooner we get the other scroll the better.” Kankuro agreed. He didn’t doubt their ability to defend the scrolls once they had gotten them, but who knows what could happen to the scrolls out of their possession. He wouldn’t put it past some of the other teams to destroy scrolls just so competing teams couldn’t succeed. 

It hadn’t taken them long to set up a suitable trap. They had situated a trip wire across a particularly shady patch of ground. If their victim fully tripped over it, hopefully they would fall onto the tree next to it. Even if they didn't, stepping on it would also launch some kunai, further throwing whoever stumbled into it off balance. Kankuro was fairly confident they could beat most teams in the exams in a straight fight, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. Iruka had always said that arrogance was the true killer of many shinobi. 

Kankuro crouched in one of the trees nearby. Gaara was hiding on the ground while Temari was perched in a tree opposite him. Luckily, it did not take too long for someone to stumble into their traps. Kankuro had just started to grow bored, when he heard the sound of someone approaching. He got Crow ready.

“I still say we should maybe check more of the outer area of the forest before heading towards the tower,” Kankuro heard someone say.

“But most of the teams will be heading towards the tower so we have the best chance of finding the other scroll if we head there too,” their teammate argued back.

“But that also means we are more likely to be attacked,” the first voice retorted.

“Oh come one, it’s not like we’ll be defeated that easily,” the second voice shot back. Not even five seconds later, Kankuro heard a scream and the sound of the trip wire being activated. He jumped out of the tree and took in the situation. Two of the team members had tripped on the wire. One had gone head first into a tree, as they had hoped, and seemed to be unconscious. The other had thrown themselves sideways to avoid the kunai, and was just getting to their feet. The third had reacted quickly and launched a slew of kunai at Gaara who had popped out of his hiding place first. Unfortunately for them, Gaara was the worst possible person for them to try and fight that way. His sand barrier stopped them all without him having to do anything.

Temari suddenly appeared behind the third fighter and knocked her out with her fan. Gaara encased the one who had knocked himself out on the tree with his sand and Kankuro launched Crow at the one remaining member. She was a pretty good sword fighter, from what he could see but Crow was strong enough to withstand her blows and a quick burst of poison was sufficient to knock her out. Temari riffled through all of their pockets until she found their scroll. Unfortunately, it was also a heaven one, so they would have to find another team to steal from. 

Temari and him carried the team they had just defeated to the clearing they had spent the night in, leaving Gaara to reapply the traps and watch their ambush spot. If he was in trouble he could singal them through the sand bracelets, but Kankuro trusted that he could take on any team in the exams and walk away just fine. They laid the three genin they had knocked out in the clearing and got to work putting up the same seals they had when they had slept there. Although Temari had taken their scroll, so other teams shouldn’t bother them, it wouldn’t hurt their chances to make sure the other team was safe until they woke up. And they might not be the most competent team, but their deaths would be pointless and wasteful. Kankuro didn’t mind killing, although his first kill had haunted him for a while, but he didn’t enjoy it or want to do it when it wasn’t necessary. His siblings had felt the same way so they had decided on this course of action. 

“Hopefully they’ll be smart enough not to try and come after us once they wake up,” he commented to Temari as they walked back towards Gaara.

“The first one seemed like he might be the type to try but at least one of them seemed more sensible and while I didn’t hear the third talk, I would like to believe most people would have enough sense to realize that would be a poor idea,” Temari replied. 

Kankuro nodded, “Then again, you never know with shinobi.” He and Temari exchanged small smiles. Iruka had gone on more than one rant over the years about how so many shinobi valued their egos far too much. He had taught them how to recognize when an opponent was outside of their skill range and how best to escape from those fights. Of course, he also taught them everything he could about how to take on opponents that were vastly more powerful than you (Kankuro and Temari got to practice those skills a lot sparring against Gaara), but he repeatedly instructed them to fight only if absolutely necessary in that type of situation and never seek those fights out.

When they arrived back at the ambush spot, it was obvious that no one had been by in their absence, so they took up their old hiding places and continued to wait. It was a couple hours after the first confrontation and still no one had wondered near their location. Kankuro had gotten bored a while ago and had taken to tending to Crow. Not that the minor scrimmage they had been in had injured him, but one could never be too careful. He double-checked that all the weapons were in place and restocked the poison that he had used. Then he greased all the joints and went over every inch of the puppet to check for any nicks or weak spots in the wood. Puppets were very delicate weapons, as his instructors drilled into him before he had even been allowed to handle his first one. What looked like a cosmetic injury at first glance could be a sign of deeper damage. They told him that a puppeteer was only as strong as their puppets (which Kankuro knew was bullshit. He could fight too, even without his puppets and Iruka had trained him well enough that he felt confident that he could at least escape from most opponents without Crow.) but his puppets were his main weapon and Kankuro was very careful with them. Crow had been with him for years at this point. He was the first puppet Kankuro had used in a real battle. Crow deserved his respect for how long he had been by Kankuro’s side. 

Of course, given how familiar Kankuro was with Crow, it did not take him long to finish his inspection. Then he pulled out a spool of trip wire and started fiddling with it, at which point Temari had started throwing acorns at him. Kankuro pouted. Temari had a strong arm and great aim. She always had been the best out of all of them at kunai throwing. So those things hurt when she threw them. It wasn’t his fault that he was pretty much incapable of sitting still. It was probably for the best that he and his siblings had not really gone to the academy with other shinobi children. Temari and him went for a short while, but they mainly had private tutors and after moving in with Iruka, the Kazekage had pretty much left their education up to him. Kankuro was sure it was some part of some plan to discredit Iruka, but Iruka was too smart to allow that to happen and by the time the Kazekage had figured that out, he couldn’t force Temari and Kankuro to go back to the academy or their tutors without losing face in the weird passive-aggressive war him and Iruka had going on, so he just continued to leave them alone.

Kankuro glared at Temari who just sent him back an unimpressed and chiding look. He was pretty sure she had picked that up from Baki. Temari was definitely his favorite and Temari seemed to enjoy his teaching style more than Kankuro and Gaara. Iruka's lessons worked better for them. But Baki was still a valuable teacher and entertaining to be around. You would think a man with half his face covered couldn’t be that expressive, but that was quite incorrect. Baki never had trouble telling them when their pranks were getting out of hand or when they had done well on missions without needing words.

Fortunately, Kankuro heard something approaching before he could start throwing the weird fruits in his tree back at Temari. That would definitely piss her off and she would take revenge on him at a later point and Temari was mean when she wanted to be.

Unlike the last team, this team wasn’t talking, just moving steadily towards them. They paused what sounded like a few yards from their trap. Kankuro slowly stood up, getting ready to jump into action if necessary. While they had hidden the tripwire pretty well, it was possible that the other team could have noticed. Although that didn’t explain why they weren’t either attacking or retreating. Temari seemed to be thinking the same thing and she quickly used hand signals to instruct Kankuro to get back on the ground, but to do so quietly and while staying out of sight of where the other team should be. Kankuro quickly obeyed, attaching a couple kunai with wires on them to the branch and repelling down the side of the tree. He crouched behind the trunk, waiting for the other team to make the first move.

Which they did, but not in the way he had expected. Instead of a jutsu or shruiken being thrown their way, Kankuro heard a soft bark and the sound of something small running towards them. He peeked his head around the trunk just in time to see a familiar dog leaping gracefully over the tripwire and running to where Gaara was hidden. Given Gaara’s delighted laugh seconds later, Kankuro wasn’t worried about this being an attack. He came out from his hiding place and sure enough, saw Gaara happily petting Akamaru who was curled up in his lap. Temari had also abandoned any attempts at stealth and came to stand beside him. They looked towards the other team, and unsurprisingly saw Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. 

“Hey, fancy seeing you in this place,” Kiba called out. He walked towards them, stopping to untie their wire from the two trees and spool it back up. He handed that to Temari when he was close enough. “How are the exams going for you?” 

Temari graced him with a small smile, undoubtedly pleased that he took the time to untie the wire and give it back to them to be used later rather than just cut it, the way many other people would have done. “Not too bad. Kankuro is very fascinated by your Forest of Death and we have not encountered any significant difficulties so far.” A very good non-answer, Kankuro thought. As expected of Temari. It technically answered the question without telling Kiba anything about how the exams were actually going for them.

Kiba must have realized the same thing, but he just let out a bark of laughter. “That’s good. We haven’t had much trouble either. We did manage to take another team’s scroll, but it was the same as the one we already had, so that doesn’t help us much.” 

Temari glanced back at his other two teammates who didn’t seem too bothered at Kiba giving away sensitive information to them. “That’s too bad for you,” she replied neutrally. Kankuro was enjoying this back and forth. Given how Akamaru was sprawled out on Gaara’s lap and how relaxed Kiba looked, he doubted they wanted to fight Kankuro and his siblings. So he allowed himself to relax enough to appreciate Temari’s uncertainty on how to deal with Kiba giving away information so easily. Iruka had always taught them to play their cards close to their chests and only give away information when it was absolutely necessary. Kiba, on the other hand, was apparently very willing to give out most information, although Kankuro had noticed he did not say which scroll they had two of. A much bolder strategy than what Kankuro and his siblings usually went with, but Kankuro had no doubt it was a purposeful strategy nonetheless.

Kiba smiled back at Temari, “Isn’t it? Honestly, trying to figure out who has the right scroll is the most annoying part of these exams. So, did you get the right scroll from the last team you attacked or are you in the same boat as us?”

“What makes you think we have two scrolls?” Temari asked.

Kiba laughed, “You did a pretty good job with clean up, so it’s not obvious there was a fight here.” He tilted his head, considering,”Although given your abilities I doubt it was a very long one. But you can’t hide from my and Akamaru’s noses. There are three unfamiliar scents, leading off in that direction,” he gestured towards the clearing where Temari and Kankuro had stashed the other team. “And you are carrying something with one of those foreign smells on it.” Temari of course didn’t make the amateur mistake of reaching towards the scroll or even glancing down at it, but Kankuro could see that she was taken aback. He hadn’t realized Kiba and Akamaru’s noses were that good. He would have to do more research on the Inuzuka and ninken in the future, since someone who could find him that easily would be disastrous for his fighting style. 

“Well, I guess there’s no point in denying it, is there?” Temari said. She glanced at Kankuro, who nodded slightly, and then at Gaara, who was still petting Akamaru and apparently not paying attention to the conversation at all. “We have two heaven scrolls.” That was true, but she made no motion to retrieve them from whatever pocket she had hidden them in. Had to keep the upper hand somehow.

Kiba grinned, “That’s great. We have two earth scrolls. Want to trade?” Temari raised her eyebrow at that. Kiba just shrugged, “Look, I really don’t want to have to fight you if there are other options. For one thing, you are quite strong. And you’re our friends. Plus, if we fight here it might take Akamaru a while before he stops seeing you as an enemy, and that means he might not let Gaara pet him for some time.” Gaara jerked his head up at that, looking imploringly at Temari.

Kankuro was pretty sure Kiba was lying about that part. From what he had seen from Akamaru and Kuromaru, the Inuzuka dogs were smart. He was sure Akamaru understood what was going on. But this wasn’t a risk he would be willing to take. Gaara obviously loved Akamaru and given how most animals ran from him or attacked him on sight, he probably wouldn’t get the chance to experience something like this again anytime soon. Kiba didn’t seem like the type to try and trick them in this situation and getting the right scrolls and heading to the tower sooner rather than later could only benefit them. Just as Kankuro thought she would, Temari immediately crumbled. When Gaara looked at them with that face, neither Kankuro nor Temari could deny him whatever it was he wanted. “Alright, a trade is fine. But you have to show us the scroll first."

“Deal,” Kiba happily agreed. At this point both his teammates moved forward to stand by Kiba and Hinata retrieved a scroll from her coat. She held it up so Temari and Kankuro could see the writing on it, which did indeed read earth. Kankuro could see Temari inspecting it to make sure it wasn’t altered. She apparently didn’t find anything since she pulled out one of their heaven scrolls from her pocket. Both her and Hinata moved forward until they could exchange the scrolls. Once Temari got her hands on the scroll, she gave it a very thorough inspection. Kankuro didn’t know what she was looking for, since he didn’t see anything funny about the scroll, but eventually she was satisfied. 

“Pleasure doing business with you,” she said, making the scroll disappear into one of her many pockets.

“Likewise,” Kiba replied. Their inspection at lasted a much shorter time, mainly consisting of Hinata looking it over with her glowing eyes (Kankuro was sure someone had told him the name of that technique at one point but he hadn’t bothered to remember it so glowing eyes it was) and Kiba sniffing it before handing it off to Shino. “Want to head towards the tower together? We can have a non-aggression pact until this stage of the exams is over since we both have what we need.”

“Sure,” Temari responded happily. Now that the exchange was over, she slipped out of her team leader persona and smiled at their friends. It was a good deal, Kankuro thought. Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino would be very helpful in giving advance warning of any enemies. Maybe Hinata would be as well, since Shino had mentioned a few nights ago that they were a tracking specialized team. 

Gaara had slowly gotten to his feet and made his way over to the rest of them with Akamaru at his heels. “Well no sense waiting around here,” Temari pointed out. “Let’s go.”

She took the lead with Kiba and Akamaru. Shino and Hinata followed them and Kankuro and Gaara brought up the rear. It didn’t escape Kankuro’s notice how Gaara kept glancing around, like he was looking for someone.

“I’m sure Naruto and the rest of them are alright,” he told Gaara as the tower came into view. Apparently they had gotten here quickly enough that not many teams had made it this far yet since no one jumped out to attack them.

Gaara nodded, but still looked displeased.

“I know you worry about them, but this is an exam,” Kankuro reminded him. “They need to succeed by themselves.” Gaara pointedly glanced ahead of them at Hinata and Shino. “Yeah, but that was an equal trade and if Father asks us about it, we can say it was a tactical decision. Us just helping out Naruto would be harder to explain.” Far too much of their life currently revolved around trying to make their father think they were worse people than they actually were. Kankuro had never really loved his father, but when he was younger, he had thought the man was incredibly strong and looked up to him. Now he knew better. Sure their father was a dangerous fighter, but that was really the only skill he had. He was a terrible Kazekage and an even worse father because he couldn’t acknowledge the importance of forming bonds with other people. Compared to Iruka, who was also a great fighter, and took the time to teach them all the skills he knew, and was there for them whenever they needed him, their father just didn’t measure up. 

“We’ll just have to trust in their strength and check in with them once they clear this stage of the exams,” he said aloud to Gaara. Gaara nodded solemnly. Kankuro grinned and patted him on the back. “Come on, let’s finish this. Imagine how proud Iruka will be when we tell them that we were one of the first teams to reach the tower.” That encouraged Gaara to speed up, as Kankuro knew it would. Kankuro was the last one to reach the tower, and watched with pride as Temari presented their scrolls to the leaf shinobi at the entrance. Yeah, his family had come far together and he couldn’t wait to show everyone just how far they would go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone! I am glad to see the end of 2020.
> 
> Sorry if the first stage of the exams felt a little rushed. I just did not feel like there was a lot I wanted to do with it. Also it has been years since I watched the chunin exam arc, so I am going off of vague recollections and wiki knowledge, so it might not match up correctly with cannon. I did make some changes on purpose, but some might be on accident.
> 
> We are going to be at this stage of the exams for the next few chapters. Next one will show what the other kids are doing and the one after that will be about what Iruka is getting up to while on this is going on. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed Kankuro's pov. He is one of my favorites and I just went all in on making him as chaotic as possible.


	8. Choji

“Sakura told me she had dinner with a team from Sand last night. Naruto, Sasuke, Tenten, and Lee were also there. Apparently, one of the team members is Sand’s jinchuriki,” Ino blurted out in a rush after dragging him and Shikamaru to the side during their training session. Asuma had tried to prevent her, but after one glare from her was enough to make him back down. Choji was pretty sure jonin teachers should not be scared of their genin (most people would expect it to be the other way around), but he had to admit Ino got scary when she was in protective mode, so he didn’t blame Asuma for deciding he was just going to stand over there for a bit and allow them a few minutes to “strategize”. 

Choji wasn’t quite sure what the big deal was. And it had to be a big deal given the way Ino had said it and the way Shikamaru had immediately dropped into his thinking position. While it was a little surprising that a team from Sand had reached out, considering they were traditionally rather closed off to the other villages, wasn’t meeting another jinchuriki good for Naruto? Both Ino and Shikamaru were treating this situation as a threat. While Choji didn’t blame them for being wary, he figured if Tenten had been fine with going to dinner with the team, they couldn’t mean Naruto harm. Tenten was pretty protective of Naruto, and unlike Lee did not trust easily. So he trusted her judgment. If she was with Naruto, no one who meant him harm would get close to him. Plus Sasuke’s default position was to distrust everyone, so he had no doubt that the Sand team had been thoroughly examined as to their motives and glared at for good measure. But Choji also knew that over analyzing everything and being suspicious of new people were the ways Ino and Shikamaru showed their care, so he would leave them to it. If the Sand team really wanted to be friends with their group, they would be willing to withstand their scrutiny. Eventually Asuma was able to convince them to focus on training for the moment and nothing more about the matter was said that day. Choji did tell his parents about it when he got home. They always asked after his friends, and on the off chance the Sand team had bad intentions, the more people that knew about the dinner the better. His parents did look surprised when he told them but didn’t seem overly concerned, which only reinforced Choji’s belief that everything was fine. 

He did not hear much more about the Sand team over the next few days, although Ino and Shikamaru did seem to be plotting something. Hopefully they would put it on hold during the chunin exams. Those were already stressful enough without adding any more problems on top. 

Choji was able to learn more about the Sand team the night before the exams started. His parents had invited all his friends over for dinner, to celebrate everyone making it this far and wishing them luck for the exams. 

Shikamaru had asked Naruto about the team he had been having dinner with, but Naruto had gotten distracted by an argument with Sasuke, so Kiba leaned over to answer, “Oh yeah, they’re pretty nice. Their names are Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara. Gaara is a jinchuriki. Their jonin teacher is Baki and Iruka, who I think is their big brother or something, was also there. He’s a really good cook.”

“Iruka is their caretaker, not a relative,” Sakura cut in. “Their father is the Kazekage and none of them mentioned their mother.”

“Wait, they’re the Kazekage’s kids?” Kiba yelled, leaning over the table to get closer to Sakura. 

Sakura looked confused, “Yes, they mentioned that the first time we met them. Although to be far, they hadn’t realized we were there at that point. I don’t think they get along well with their father.”

“So when Kankuro mentioned Iruka regularly yelled at their father and does not allow him to make decisions in regards to how they were raised if he can help it, that means he does those things to the Kazekage?” Kiba looked rather impressed. “He really is fearless.”

“Iruka is great!” Naruto chimed in. His argument with Sasuke had nearly escalated into a wrestling match before Tenten reached over and smacked both of them in the head to get them to settle down. “He’s really good at seals and he can make ramen like you can get at Ichiraku. He’s been looking after Gaara since Gaara was six.” While Choji was glad Naruto was making friends, he was a bit confused about how enthusiastic Naruto was about this Iruka. 

“It seems odd that the Kazekage would allow someone else to have so much influence over his children, particularly someone who he does not get along with,” Ino commented. “Do you have any idea why that is?” Choji knew that tone of voice. This wasn’t the question Ino really wanted the answer to, but rather something adjacent that could probably get her the information she sought without the person she was talking to realizing what she was after. She had used it a lot on Mizuki back at the academy.

“I don’t think he had much of a choice,” Sakura said. “From what I understand, Gaara’s seal was pretty unstable before Iruka fixed it. He apparently killed multiple people because he didn’t understand who the voice in his head was and the bijuu kept telling him to kill people. And then Iruka came along and was able to fix the seal and convince Gaara not to kill people from his village. So Gaara really latched on to him and everyone in Sand is still kind of terrified of what will happen if Gaara loses control again, so they want to keep him happy. And Gaara has made it very clear that he will be unhappy if the Kazekage forces Iruka to leave, so the Kazekage’s options were limited.”

“Gaara hasn’t hurt anyone in the village in years,” Sakura quickly added, probably in response to Ino and Shikamaru’s facial expressions. Ino in particular looked about ready to lock Naruto in his apartment to ensure he would be going near the Sand team anytime soon.

“Gaara’s fine,” Kiba chimed in. “Akamaru liked him once he got past being scared of the scent of his bijuu. And Kuromaru likes Iruka, and Kuromaru hardly likes anyone.” While all this information did make Choji a little nervous about meeting the siblings for himself, he figured that if both Kiba and Sakura thought they were safe, they probably were. Naruto was very quick to try and befriend anyone he came across, but the rest of their friends were more wary of people who sought to get close to Naruto. Besides, Kiba was a really good judge of character. Choji had no clue how his and Akamaru’s smell told them so much about people, but he had said on the first day of the academy that he did not like Mizuki and he turned out to be right. However, he could see that Shikamaru and Ino were not convinced. Not that he was too surprised. They were the ones all those years ago who saw how terrible Naruto’s life was and started their group down the path that led to all of them becoming friends and growing stronger together. So it made sense that the two of them would be the most hesitant about new people bursting into Naruto’s life, particularly if they had not had the chance to evaluate them beforehand. But there was nothing that could be done about it now. Choji knew that no amount of praise from their other friends would satisfy his teammates. They needed to meet the Sand team and judge them for themselves. However, that would have to wait until after the first rounds of the chunin exams.

Soon enough, the discussion moved on to what everyone was bringing to the exams and what they thought the first stage would be like. Of course, it soon devolved to everyone talking over each other and Kiba insisting on increasingly improbable tests. Choji may not know quite what to expect from the chunin exams but he was pretty sure that they would not have to complete an underwater obstacle course while arrows were being shot at them. That seemed rather specific and also a logistical nightmare to organize. But it was nice to sit and just let the voices of his friends wash over him. With everyone on genin teams and running various missions, it had been a while since they had all been together like this. He had missed it more than he realized until he saw them all together again. He loved being on a team with Ino and Shikamaru, and wouldn’t trade them for anyone. However, he had missed Hinata’s soft smile and unwavering support. He had missed Naruto and Kiba’s enthusiasm and silly arguments. Training hadn’t been the same without Lee yelling encouragement and Sakura mumbling under her breath about chakra theory. He wondered how Hanabi was doing in her last year of the academy and if Tenten had mastered any new weapons. Sure, he could ask them about those things. Hanabi was teasing her sister while Tenten and Lee were sitting with his mother, but it wasn’t the same as when he could see Tenten pick up a new weapon and keep practicing with it until she had mastered it or hear Hanabi’s complaints about her classmates on a daily basis. He even found himself missing Shino’s insects and Sasuke’s eye rolls. He knew that part of being a shinobi was accepting that he would be separated from his friends and family often for missions, and that many of his loved ones would die relatively young. But it wasn’t something he liked he dwell on. He supposed the dawning chunin exams brought these worries to the front of his mind. Every year he watched his father go over statistics with Ino’s and Shikamaru’s fathers about how many people passed, how many were injured, and how many died. While the deaths were never a high number, rarely were they zero either. While he trusted his friends’ strength, he couldn’t help but fear the possibility of losing one of them. He was so glad that his parents had invited everyone over tonight. Just seeing them all together made him feel much calmer. They had withstood Mizuki’s indifference, enemy nin, and so much more. Surely, they would survive this too.

Everyone left relatively early, wanting to be well-rested before the first stage of the exams. Choji could not bring himself to sleep just yet and instead sat outside, watching the stars. He barely glanced up as he heard his parents join him. “Did you pass the chunin exams on your first attempt?” he asked, realizing he had never heard his parents talk about their own chunin exams. 

His mother laughed, “I did. Although the same can’t be said for you father.”

“I blame Inochi,” his father insisted.

“Funny, I’m pretty sure he says the same thing about you,” she replied.

His father laughed, “I’ll tell you the story after you have completed the exams.” They did not ask if he was nervous, obviously already knowing the answer.

“I’ve been helping you and your friends train for years,” his mother said. “I have no doubt that you are as prepared as you can be. Your jonin instructors would not have nominated you if they did not have faith in your skills.” Choji nodded absent-mindedly. He knew all this, but it did nothing to quiet the worry eating his mind.

“Sasuke is the last Uchiha in the village and Naruto is the jinchuriki,” Choji stated, noting the complete lack of reaction his parents had to him knowing the second part. He had suspected that they knew he knew, but this confirmed it. “They could be specifically targeted by someone who wants to use their power.”

“I won’t lie to and say that’s not a possibility,” his father replied. “But I doubt they would choose to make a move now. Everyone is on high alert with some many foreign shinobi around.”

Choji supposed that made sense.

“Naruto and Sasuke can protect themselves,” his mother gently reminded him. “I know you want to be there to help them if they need it, but to do that, you need to focus on yourself first and make sure you advance through the first few stages of the exams.” Choji reluctantly nodded, knowing his mother had a point.

“I have no doubt you will be fine,” his father told him. “You, Ino, and Shikamaru make a wonderful team. Trust in them and in yourself. Plus, I pity anyone who tries to prevent Ino from reaching her goals.” 

Choji found himself smiling. Although he had never been on the receiving end of Ino’s wrath, he had definitely seen how she dealt with those who were and agreed with his father’s assessment. He spent the next hour just sitting quietly with his parents as they told him stories he had heard hundreds of times before. It was calming. He eventually roused himself and went to bed. Who knows what the exams would throw at them tomorrow and he needed to get his rest while he could. He didn’t want anything to interfere with his ability to protect his friends. 

The next morning dawned before he was ready for it. His mother had made him a large breakfast and even more food for him to bring in his pack. 

“Come back safe,” his mother told him as she walked him towards the door, the same thing she said to his father before he left for every mission.

Choji just nodded his head, the same response his father always gave. 

His father grasped him on the shoulder and smiled, “I look forward to hearing about your adventures when you get done.” Choji nodded, comforted by the knowledge that his father believed he would do well.

He waved good-bye to his parents and walked towards the Yamanaka clan compound. He and Shikamaru had agreed to meet Ino there so they could walk to the exams together. Ino was already waiting for him when he arrived, although as expected, Shikamaru was not there yet. Ino greeted him, but thankfully after that was content to wait in silence for their lazy friend to show up. While Choji often appreciated Ino’s chatter since it could take his mind off whatever was bothering him, he was glad she was caught up in her own silent contemplation. The quiet gave him a chance to ground himself and prepare for what was to come. 

Shikamaru arrived soon after, complaining under his breath about early mornings and nosy parents. It was such a normal scene that it calmed Choji’s nerves. It could have been any day that their parents dragged them to any early morning training session.

Asuma met them near the building where the first stage of the exams would take place. “Good morning. Everyone ready?” Ino grinned and Choji nodded while Shikamaru yawned. “Good enough, I guess,” Asuma said. “This is not the sort of thing where last minute advice would be helpful, so I’ll just say that I have been honored to be your jonin teacher for the past months. I have seen all of you grow during your time as my team. I have no doubt that you have the skills needed to deal with the chunin exams.” With that he gave them a wave and lit a cigarette, “I’ll see you when you’re done.”

Ino thanked him and said good-bye on behalf of their team and then they entered the building. There were more people that Choji expected milling about. They were pretty close to the time the first exam was scheduled to start. However, he did not see anyone he recognized so their friends must already be in the exam room.

Ino strode determinedly towards the stairs, dragging Shikamaru behind her while Choji walked beside them. He knew Shikamaru was taking the exams more seriously than he let on, but right now he seemed content to allow Ino to pull him behind her. They had barely set foot in the corridor where the fake exam room was located when Ino saw through the trick and hurried them upstairs. They still arrived in the exam room with of time to spare. As Choji had predicted, he could see all their friends already there.

“The puppeteer, the girl with the fan, and the boy with the gourd on the Sand team that has been hanging around Naruto,” Ino reported quietly, subtly indicating each one. Choji glanced over at the people she gestured to. The boy with the gourd was leaning against the wall, smiling slightly to himself. “The boy with the gourd is the jinchuriki.” That made Choji take a second look at him. Not that he thought there would be any visible indication of his status; after all he had known Naruto for years before finding out that he was a jinchuriki. But ever since he had found out about Naruto, he had wondered about the lives of other jinchuriki. Naruto had not had a very happy life, with so many people hating him for something he could not control. He wondered if the lives of other jinchuriki were like that or if they were better. The nine-tails’ attack on the village had been devastating and the motivation for much of the hatred directed at Naruto. Choji hoped the other jinchuriki did not have to deal with the same level of scorn since he would not wish that on anyone. The Sand jinchuriki seemed happy enough. He wondered if having siblings helped with that. 

The other two siblings were talking quietly a little ways, glancing over at their brother every so often. That was reassuring since Choji recognized those kinds of looks. They were the ones Hana gave Kiba or Ino directed at him and Shikamaru-checking to make sure that they were alright and not caused a massive amount of chaos since the last time they had looked away. Choji was glad that the Sand jinchuriki was loved. 

Choji did not even attempt to answer any of the questions as the test began. He knew Ino would just copy Sakura’s answers once she was done using her mind body switch technique, and then do the same thing to write out the answers for him and Shikamaru. While he was pretty sure Shikamaru could answer the questions, he was sure his friend would be too lazy to do so when he knew Ino could get them for him. And Ino would know that as well. So she’d do it, although she’d probably smack Shikamaru in the head for it later.

Sure enough, with about 10 minutes left in the exam, Choji blinked and then all the answers were filled in. Now he just had to wait for the tenth question. And even that wasn’t hard. Choji figured it was a trick, but even if it wasn’t, he trusted that his team would be able to handle whatever question was thrown at them. Hearing Naruto’s little speech was reassuring though. He could not help himself from worrying about his friend, but that had reminded him far they had come and how dedicated they were. His parents were right, he would just have to trust in them.

And then they were on to the second stage. Ino promptly took possession of their scroll, with neither him or Shikamaru objecting. Choji wasn’t too worried about the dangers the Forest of Death itself presented. His father had brought him there a few times and he had heard Shikamaru’s father talking about that was in there enough that he wasn’t too scared of the wildlife in there. Of course, he was still concerned about the dangers the other teams presented.

“Do we want to head straight for the tower or wait on the edges for a while?” Ino asked. “Most teams will probably be heading towards the center. Which means the ones staying towards the edges are either hesitant about their skills or want to fight those hesitant teams.”

“Let’s head towards the center but take it slow,” Shikamaru suggested. He was looking around the forest. “We can see if we can gather any information on various teams on our way.” That sounded sensible enough to Choji, so he agreed. 

They did not come across any other teams for the first two days, although they did hear distant sounds of battle. It was the morning of the third day when Ino announced that their friends were in trouble. She had been using her mind boy swap jutsu on a sparrow to scout the surrounding area and she came back with a gasp. “We need to go south now. Sakura is being attacked by a team from Sound and Sasuke looks pretty beat up. I did not see Naruto.” Which was very concerning. Sasuke was a strong fighter, so whoever beat him that badly must be incredibly strong and Naruto would never willingly leave his teammates’ sides in a dangerous situation. 

As they were running towards the location, they ran into Lee and Tenten. “Are you coming to help Sasuke and Sakura, too?” Ino asked when she saw them.

“Sasuke and Sakura are in trouble?” Tenten responded. “We just came this way because Lee’s new squirrel friend told us to.”

Choji glanced over and sure enough perched on Lee’s shoulder was a squirrel who seemed to be giving directions.

“You’re following a squirrel?” Shikamaru asked. “How did you even befriend one?” Tenten just gestured at Lee like that was all the answer they needed, which it honestly was. Lee was surprisingly good at befriending wildlife.

They followed the squirrel’s directions (mainly communicated by tugging on Lee’s ear) until Lee suddenly gestured at them to stop. They fanned out, hiding behind the trees that lined the clearing to get a look inside. Sure enough, there was Sakura and three shinobi from Sound. Neither Naruto or Sasuke were visible, although given how Sakura was guarding a particular tree, Choji guessed Sasuke was hidden there. Naruto apparently hadn’t made it back yet.

They watched quietly as Sakura launched a slew of kunai at her attackers. She seemed to be doing well, beside the odds stacked against her. But then the one wrapped in bandages launched some kind of attack that threw her off balance and she couldn’t seem to recover. 

“Sound,” Shikamaru muttered. He rapidly signaled to Ino to take over the Sound kunoichi’s mind. He gestured for Tenten to deal with the third Sound nin and he would use shadow sewing on the one with the bandages. “Be ready to attack him quickly once I have him since I can’t hold that technique for long,” he warned them. He moved around the edge of the clearing, getting closer to his target. Given the amount of vegetation around, there was little sunlight coming through and so few shadows, but Choji knew how good Shikamaru was at finding the perfect spot for his techniques to work. 

Ino moved, getting directly behind the Sound kunoichi, who was standing over Sakura. She seemed to be tracking Shikamaru’s movements, so they waited for her to signal to launch their attack. While they were waiting, the three of them drew up a quick battle plan. Tenten would launch a scroll of kunai and some other weapons at her opponent. Hopefully that would incapacitate him, but at the very least it would provide cover for Choji and Lee to run into the clearing. Lee would take out the ones with the bandages, since he was the most capable of taking someone out quickly at close range. Shadow sewing was a fairly advanced technique, much more than shadow imitation shadow bind, which was what Shikamaru usually used, so he could only hold it for a few seconds. But that should be enough for Lee to knock the shinobi unconscious. Choji was not quite sure what that boy’s jutsu was but given that it seemed to still be messing with Sakura’s balance minutes after he used it, it was best avoided if possible.

Choji would head towards the third member and fight him if he was still conscious after Tenten’s attack. Tenten would check and make sure Ino’s technique had worked and then aid either of them if their fights were still going. 

On Ino’s signal, Tenten released a few scrolls of kunai while Lee and Choji rushed into the clearing. Choji couldn’t even see how Lee’s fight was going, so focused on his own opponent. He had acquired quite a few cuts and was knocked off balance by Tenten’s attack but had recovered fairly quickly and managed to dodge most of the later ones. Choji quickly made himself larger using the Multi-Sized Technique and pulled in his limbs to make himself into a Human Bullet Tank. His opponent seemed to use wind style, since Choji could feel something pushing back at him, but in the end his force was greater. Choji ran over his opponent, feeling something crunch. He turned immediately afterwards and ran over him again, just to be safe. He then shrank back down and glanced around to see how everyone else was doing. He hadn't even been able to keep an ear open for the other fights, since that technique plugged his ears. But luckily everything seemed to have gone well. Tenten was methodically tying up the one with the bandages and the Sound kunoichi was unconscious, with Shikamaru watching her closely.

Ino was fussing over Sakura, getting her to drink some water and bandaging her cuts. “Sasuke is over there,” Sakura told her, gesturing to the tree she had been protecting. “He’s also hurt.” 

“I’ll check him over in a second,” Ino assured her. And sure enough once she was satisfied that Sakura was alright, she headed beneath the tree. After a moment she stuck her head back out again, “Lee, can you help me carry Sasuke out? I need more light.” Lee agreed and laid Sasuke down in the clearing, near Sakura. 

“You alright?” Shikamaru asked, not talking his eyes off the Sound kunoichi.

“Yeah,” Choji replied after figuring out he was the one Shikamaru was talking to. “He was distracted and already wounded by Tenten so it was not hard to deal with him.

Shikamaru shot him an annoyed look, “Don’t undervalue your efforts. I saw the wind technique he used. Your Human Bullet Tank must have gotten stronger since the last time I'd seen you use it if you were able to break through that.” Choji had been practicing that specific technique with his dad often in the lead up to the chunin exams, and he was glad to see that it had paid off.

Tenten was finally satisfied with the bonds she had been working on and came over to tie up the one Shikamaru was guarding and then doing the same to Choji’s opponent. They carried the three of them to the center of the clearing so they could easily watch over them.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Choji heard Ino say. He turned to see her examining Sasuke. “I mean he has some bruises and shallow cuts, but other than that, the only physical wound I can see is this strange mark on his neck. I’ve never seen anything like it before and I don’t know what it is doing to him. Sakura, just who was he fighting?”

“I don’t know,” Sakura admitted. “But whoever they were, they were terrifying. They showed me visions of my death over and over again and I think Sasuke went through something similar. At one point, Sasuke unleashed a fireball jutsu at them and their face seemed to melt off. And they bit Sasuke, which is how he got that mark. And I think they did something to Naruto’s chakra too. He seemed to be having difficulty mustering the amount he usually does.”

“Where is Naruto now?” Tenten asked.

“I don’t know that either. I’m sorry,” Sakura replied. “He got hit and thrown into the distance.”

“How did you get away from the attacker?” Shikamaru asked.

“We didn’t. They just left after giving Sasuke that mark,” Sakura said. “I wanted to look for Naruto, but Sasuke was so injured and I needed to protect him.”

“You did well,” Tenten told her. “We can look for Naruto. Which direction did you say he was launched?” Sakura gestured. “Can you take care of things here?” she asked Shikamaru who nodded. She and Lee took off in the direction Sakura indicated.

“What now?” Ino asked.

Shikamaru didn’t answer right away, instead going over to examine the three Sound shinobi they had defeated. “Doesn’t the timing seem a bit suspicious?” he muttered. “They attack just when you were vulnerable after the attack from the strange shinobi.”

“Maybe they spied on them and thought they were an easy target to steal a scroll from?” Choji ventured.

“Maybe,” Shikamaru said, although he did not sound convinced. “Sakura did the person who attacked you say anything weird before leaving?”

“Oh, now that mentioned it, they told Sasuke good luck before they left,” Sakura told them. 

“That’s odd,” Ino commented. “Why would they attack him and then wish him good luck?

“It must somehow relate back to this mark,” Shikamaru said, sinking into his thinking pose. “It seems like some kind of seal, so maybe the attacker wants Sasuke to activate it. It may activate when the user is in danger, so your attacker sent some allies to put Sasuke into a situation where he would activate it. And it may be one that activates unconsciously if the conditions are right.” Everyone watched Shikamaru pace back and forth, continuing on his line of reason. “Which means,” he said abruptly, “that these three and your mysterious attacker could be working together.”

“Then we could use them to get some information about that person,” Ino said. 

Shikamaru nodded. “Ino, could you?” he gestured at their unconscious captives.

She nodded and went over to them, laying her hand on the bandaged one. No one said anything, knowing she needed to concentrate. About a minute later, she drew back. “I wasn’t able to get much,” she warned them. “Dad has barely let me start learning how to do this. One thing I can say for sure is that this team is working with the mysterious attacker. I got the impression of someone ordering them to attack Sakura and Sasuke. And I think whoever is giving them orders is the major force behind their village. Also, I just got the sensation of snakes. Don’t know how much that helps, but I can’t get much else.”

“I’m sure it will be helpful,” Choji assured her. “At least we know they share a connection.”

“Snakes,” Ino muttered. “And they must be powerful to place a seal like that. Why does that sound familiar?”

“You think you know who the attacker is?” Sakura asked.

She shook her head. “No, I can’t recall but I know I have heard of someone who uses snakes before. I’ll ask my dad about it once this stage is done.”

Shikamaru hadn’t said anything this whole time. He was still staring at their captives, obviously thinking intensely. Before they could continue their discussion, Sasuke groaned and sat up.

“Sasuke, are you okay?” Sakura rushed to her teammate’s side.

Once she had helped him sit up, Sasuke winced and reached for his neck. Apparently that was enough of a reminder because he jolted and looked around wildly. “Are they still here? Are you alright? Where’s Naruto?”

“We’re safe for now,” Sakura told him. “They left after putting that mark on you. I’m fine. I don’t know where Naruto is right now but Tenten and Lee are looking for him so he should be alright.”

Sasuke calmed down after hearing that. “What are you doing here?” he asked Choji’s team, seeming to notice them for the first time.

“We saw that Sakura was being attacked and came to help her out,” Ino explained. “Luckily we were able to take care of the attackers without too much trouble.” She gestured to their bound captives. “Although we do need to figure out what to do with them.”

Before they could start that conversation, they heard a familiar yell. They all turned in that direction and sure enough, seconds later Naruto burst into the clearing followed by Lee and Tenten. “Are you alright?” he yelled, rushing over to Sasuke and Sasuke. 

“Where did you find him?” Shikamaru asked.

Tenten pulled a long-suffering face, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Sakura caught Naruto up on everything that happened in this absence and in return he told them what he had been doing.

“You got eaten by a snake and made a whole bunch of shadow clones to burst out?” Shikamaru was pulling the exact same face Tenten had a minute ago. “How do you get yourself into these situations?”

Naruto just shrugged and continued on with his tale, although there was not much else to add. Apparently Tenten and Lee had found him just after he burst out of the snake and led him back. At least their whole team was back together now. Speaking of which...

“Where’s Neji?” Ino asked after Naruto had finished his story. Choji only then realized that Neji really should be with Tenten and Lee. He was so used to it just being the two of them at their training sessions that he hadn’t remembered that their full team was here.

“Oh we split up,” Tenten said dismissively. “All three of us went in different directions to try and find teams to take scrolls from. But then I ran into Lee who came this way on his squirrel friend’s directions and he explained the situation. Don’t worry I have our scroll so everything should be fine.” Choji was pretty sure you also needed to have all three teammates alive and together to pass the test, but if Tenten didn’t seem concerned, he wouldn’t be either. They had been a team for a year longer than the rest of them so they must know each other’s abilities fairly well. And Hinata had always said her cousin was a prodigy. 

“Although once we figure out what we want to do with the Sound team, we should probably go look for him,” Tenten admitted. “I’m pretty sure it’s past the time we agreed to meet.”

“We really should figure out what to do with them,” Ino agreed. Everyone turned to look at their captives. “I’m sure my dad could get more information out of them, so we shouldn’t kill them.” Choji was glad that option was off the table. He would kill to protect his friends, but he never liked doing it, particularly on an opponent who could not defend themselves at the moment. 

“But I don’t want them following us and trying to attack us again either,” Sakura said.

“Why not just leave them tied up?” Tenten suggested. “Those are my strongest knots so they should hold them for a while. Based on the skills they have displayed, they would break out eventually but it will take them some time. Then they’ll have to focus on getting another scroll, since whatever scheme they are in on probably requires them to make it to the next round. That gives us time to find another scroll and get to the tower.” Everyone agreed that her solution was the best. And since none of them wanted to undo the ropes and potentially give them the opportunity to escape to look for their scroll, they decided to find other teams to take from.

Tenten and Lee immediately took off to find Neji. Choji and his teammates walked with Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke a little ways before splitting up as well. Sakura wanted her teammates to rest for a little while longer and had found a defensible position, so they headed that way while Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru chose a different direction to look for other teams. 

The rest of the second stage was less stressful compared to that. They didn’t found anyone the rest of the day, but the following morning Ino reported she had spotted another team while mind switching with another sparrow. Since they were especially wary of the powers of the other teams in the forest given their experience the previous day, they decided to spy on their selected opponents for a bit before trying anything.

While they didn’t seem like a particularly powerful team, they decided to play it safe. They had been able to see where their scroll was stored and so when night fell and only one of them stayed awake on guard duty, Ino mind switched with him, walked over and picked up the scroll, then brought it to where Shikamaru and Choji (plus Ino’s body) were located. Luckily, it was the heaven scroll they needed. So Ino switched back and Choji promptly knocked out the other genin before he could wanrnhis teammates. With that, they headed towards the tower.

Of course, they had been delayed by the fight with the Sound shinobi, so there were quite a few teams waiting around the tower, desperate for a scroll. They continued their avoidance tactics, with Ino scouting the least populated route and them moving silently as she instructed. They did run into one team, who must have suddenly changed course after Ino had seen them. But they were as surprised to see Choji and his teammates as they were to see them. However, Choji’s team recovered quicker. Ino quickly drew kunai and went after the person in front. Choji ran past her, punching with an enlarged fist at the shinobi who was trying to draw his sword. Choji was faster and was able to knock his opponent out before he could even get his sword out. Ino had dealt with her opponent as well. Shikamaru had caught the third in his Shadow Imitation Shadow Bind. He waited until Ino and Choji were surrounding her before releasing the technique. They were able to knock her out before she put up much of a fight. 

They moved on quickly, wary of other teams being drawn to the noise. They were able to make it to the tower without a further incident. They finally were able to open the scrolls and a chunin Choji vaguely recognized from the mission desk popped up and congratulated them. They were allowed to rest in the tower until the time limit for the second phase expired. 

Choji collapsed into the bed provided that night and slept for a long time. The second stage had been really tiring. He then met up with Ino and Shikamaru for a late breakfast. “I’ve seen Kiba and Akamaru around. Apparently they passed pretty early on. They ambushed a team and took their scroll but it was the same as the one they already had. They traded it to the Sand team Naruto has been hanging around with since they had two of the other scroll and then same to the tower with them. I also saw Lee and Tenten,” Ino reported, having been up for a while. “Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura still aren’t here yet.”

“There are still two days before time expires,” Shikamaru pointed out.

“I know, I’m just worried that their attacker tried something again,” Choji shared Ino’s concern but...

“Nothing we can do at this point. We’ll just have to trust in them,” he said, drawing another plate of food towards himself. 

“You’re right. I’m sure they’ll come rushing in a couple minutes before the deadline with Naruto screaming, Sasuke rolling his eyes, and Sakura laughing at the two of them,” Ino said. “Anyway,” she said, changing the topic, “I heard the third phase is usually one-on-one battles, think you could beat me if we got paired against each other?” She laughed at Choji’s and Shimamaru’s expressions. Choji knew he had grown stronger recently and could maybe keep up with Ino, but he really did not want to. 

“At least now no matter who we get paired up with, as long as it's not her, we’ll feel like we escaped from a more terrifying fate,” Shikamaru muttered to Choji. Ino immediately demanded to know what he said and started stealing Shikamaru’s food from him when he refused. Choji laughed, allowing himself to finally relax. As long as they had each, they would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Power-scaling the kids was a challenge. I wanted them to be able to use more techniques than we saw them use at this point in canon, but not make them too powerful, so I just gave them more techniques but limited how much they could use them. Hopefully it did not feel too jarring.
> 
> I go out of my way to change things to give the kids more chances to work together. 
> 
> I feel that of all the kids, Ino and Shikamaru would be the most leery of the Sand siblings. I mean, Sasuke is distrustful towards everyone (which kind of makes it lose its effectiveness). But Ino and Shikamaru are the ones who would get caught up in thinking this is some kind of master plot. Choji, on the other hand, tends to believe the best of people and thinks more about the good that could come from the friendship.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight c/w for the beginning of a panic attack. It does not get bad, but if that might bother you, skip from the end of the second paragraph to "You have a few things going on right now." Basically, Iruka panics over the current situation and Baki helps him calm down.

As soon as Baki left the apartment with the kids, Iruka got to business figuring out how to first discover who the imposter was and then how to expose them as safely as possible. Hopefully that would stop the invasion plan, but if not, he needed to plan to to avoid that as well. Iruka hated how little information he had to work with. All he knew about the imposter was that they likely planned the invasion and convinced the Kazekage to go along with it, they were strong enough to defeat the Kazekage with only one ally, they likely had a grudge against Leaf considering the lengths they were willing to go, and their chakra felt wrong somehow. Most of those were not concrete qualities he could use to track down the imposter’s identity and the grudge against Leaf was too broad. He had jotted everything one the list down and found himself just looking at it in despair. How in the world was he going to solve this problem in the small amount of time he had?

“Iruka, are you alright?” Baki had apparently gotten back from walking to kids to the testing center and had taken a seat next to Iruka on the couch. “And before you ask, the kids got there safely and the first stage just started. I’ll be notified once they pass. Now, let’s talk about what has you freaked out.”

Iruka smiled slightly. Baki knew him so well. “What isn’t worrying me, right now? We’re no closer to figuring out the imposter’s identity or goals then we were days ago and have not come with any viable plans either. Every second we waste is more time for the imposter to further their plans and put everyone in more danger.” Iruka was breathing heavily by the end of his rant, feeling like he could not get enough air.

“Breathe,” Baki instructed, gently pressing his hand to Iruka’s back and taking very audible, slow breaths. Iruka followed his example and eventually felt better.

“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” he said.

“You have a few things going on right now,” Baki pointed out. “Plus the kids are in a potentially dangerous situation, both from the exams and the imposter, and I know you don’t react well to having them in danger. It’s completely natural that this kind of situation would make you feel panicked. Do you want some time to calm down or will working on the problem right away make you feel better?”

Iruka knew he would not truly be able to feel calm until the situation with the imposter had been dealt with. “Let’s keep thinking up solutions,” he replied. “I need something to focus on or else I’ll just get caught worrying about the kids.”

“Alright,” Baki agreed. “So what do we want to focus on first?”

“Our main objective is finding out the imposter’s identity. While a Leaf bingo book would be helpful, even more useful would be getting a chance to talk to a Leaf shinobi who is familiar with the village’s enemies and missing-nin. Since we don’t have much to go on, a person who could know behavioral cues and tendencies would be more useful than a book.”

“Of course that takes us back to the original problem of how to get a Leaf shinobi to listen to us and share this kind of information with us. A bingo book we could potentially acquire without anyone finding out and questioning why we want it, but that wouldn’t be possible if you want to talk to someone,” Baki pointed out.

Iruka sighed, “I know. And since we haven’t even managed to come up with a plan to get a Leaf bingo book, I doubt we will be able to figure out how to convince someone to talk to us and not immediately run to the Hokage. It was just a thought.”

“Well, it’s another option to consider,” Baki said. “Have had any luck thinking up plans?

Iruka shook his head. It was so frustrating. Since the imposter was posing as the Kazekage, they had to be careful not to arouse suspicion from any of the Sand shinobi who might report back to the imposter, thinking they were plotting treason. Iruka’s reputation for regularly opposing the Kazekage wouldn’t help in that regard. But they also had to be careful that no Leaf shinobi figured out what Sand, under the orders of the imposter, was plotting since that exposure would risk an all out war. Iruka had learned to thrive in situations where the odds were stacked against him, but this was ridiculous. 

Before they could continue their conversation, someone knocked on the door. Iruka quickly removed the silencing barrier that almost permanently surrounded their apartment while Baki went to answer it. He stood back to allow Scorpion entrance. Iruka threw the silencing barrier back up, sensing they did not want anyone to hear the next conversation.

“Are you busy right now?” Scorpion immediately asked.

“No, why?” Iruka replied.

“How close do you have to be to someone to sense them?” Scorpion asked instead of answering Iruka’s question.

“Depends on the environment and how strong their chakra is,” Iruka told him. “In the village, I could sense someone with relatively strong chakra from a couple blocks away if I am specifically searching for them.”

“What’s going on? Why are you asking?” Baki asked.

“I think the person pretending to be the Kazekage changed,” Scorpion told them. “I was on duty all morning and something about the fake Kazekage was different from before. I can’t quite describe it, but I am fairly certain they are a different person.”

The implications of what he said were not lost on Iruka and Baki. If the imposter switched with someone else on the very morning the chunin exams began, they had likely stolen another identity and entered the exams.

“Let’s verify that the person impersonating the Kazekage was changed and go forward from there,” Baki suggested.

“Alright,” Iruka agreed. “I shouldn’t need to get too close to verify the switch. The imposter had very strong and unique chakra.” 

“The apparent Kazekage is currently resting in his quarters. They are on the third floor. If you walk past the building from the street would that be close enough?” Scorpion asked.

“Yes,” Iruka replied. 

“Good. Remember not to stop or do anything out of the ordinary as you are going by,” Scorpion reminded him. “There will be four anbu guards.”

“Understood,” Iruka replied. Scorpion quickly gave them directions to the building containing the quarters the Kazekage had been given and then departed. Baki and Iruka chatted about how they thought the kids were doing with the silencing seals down, just in case anyone was listening. Iruka then suggested they head to the marketplace, which Baki agreed to.

They kept up their stream of chatter while they meandered their way around Leaf. As they neared the corner to turn onto the street the imposter was staying, Baki started telling a rather long story about one of the mishaps the kids had had during training. It allowed Iruka to concentrate fully on sensing rather than worrying about carrying his end of the conversation. 

He was able to pick up the four anbu guards without an issue but could not find the person they were guarding. He grew worried that the imposter had noticed Iruka’s ability and was shielding themselves somehow until he got directly outside the building and realized why he was having problems. It wasn’t that the imposter was masking their chakra, it was that the chakra signature of the fake Kazekage was so weak compared to what it had been before that Iruka hadn’t been able to pick up on it until he was closer. The sheer difference in magnitude of the chakra signatures would have been enough to make Iruka think they were separate people, but the sense he got of this fake’s chakra cemented it. It did not feel as twisted as the imposter’s had, although it still was not pleasant. 

Iruka picked up his conversation with Baki like nothing happened, and continued to maintain the facade throughout shopping and their walk back towards their apartment. A couple blocks from their apartment, Iruka heard someone call his name. When he turned he saw Mari walking towards them, “Hello, Iruka, Baki, you’re not doing anything right now, are you?”

“We need to put groceries away, but other than that we are free,” Iruka answered.

“Great. I need some help making some medicine. I decided to stockpile a variety of them in preparation for the final round of the exams. You know how those always get out of hand.”

“And you decided to bully us into helping you?” Baki mock complained.

“But of course, who else would I go to?” Mari laughed.

Iruka had to smile. Mari really was clever. No one would think it was suspicious that she wanted help with her medicines. And everyone knew that making medicine was a very loud process so it would not be surprising that they set up silencing seals so as not to disturb their neighbors. “We would be delighted to help you,” Iruka replied. “It will help take my mind off the exams.”

“Oh yeah, the first stage is supposed to be ending any time now, right? You’ll find out if they pass that huddle soon?” Mari said, ushering them back to their apartment.

Iruka was not surprised to sense that Scorpion was already inside the apartment. They entered and him and Baki put the groceries away while Mari started describing what medicines she wanted to make and getting out the necessary supplies from her bag. Iruka then put up the seals. They continued setting things up, Mari giving both him and Baki various herbs she wanted them to grind up. Once everyone was seated, with everyone making sure their mouths (and all of Scorpion) were not visible through the windows, Iruka said, “Scorpion was right. The person pretending to be the Kazekage currently is not the original imposter. They are certainly working together, since there were some similarities in the feel of their chakra, but this imposter is much weaker. I’m guessing a subordinate of the original imposter.” 

“Given the timing, I’d say it’s safe to assume the original imposter has taken on someone else’s identity and entered the chunin exams,” Scorpion said. “I can’t imagine the imposter would take this risk for anything else.”

Iruka nodded. “I believe so.”

“The imposter isn’t interested in Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari beyond as weapons for the upcoming invasion,” Baki spoke up. “If they wanted to use them in some other way, they have done so while impersonating the Kazekage. So they wouldn’t be the target of the imposter’s plot.”

“Then the kids should be safe from the imposter, at least during the exams,” Mari pointed out. 

“Unless they somehow interfere with the imposter’s plots, yes they should be,” Scorpion replied.

Iruka hated to admit that was a relief. Given how vile the imposter’s chakra felt, he would not wish their attention on anyone, but he was glad that his kids were not the target. While he hoped none of the kids they had befriended in Leaf ran into the imposter, he forced himself to put the matter to the side for right now. He could not protect any of the kids taking the exams, but he could prevent the upcoming invasion. “While the imposter infiltrating the exams is concerning, it does give us an opportunity. Their subordinate is nowhere near as strong as the original imposter and will probably have their hands full just keeping up the charade. Which means they won’t have the ability to watch us closely,” Iruka explained. “If we want to make some more obvious moves now is the perfect time.”

“Only one problem with that- we don’t know what our next move is,” Baki pointed out. It was true. Neither of them had been able to come up with any way to figure out the imposter’s identity without revealing too much to people they couldn’t trust.

“Mari, have you had any luck with evaluating the Sand shinobi here for how they will react to the situation?” Scorpion asked. “Maybe we could start there.”

“Sadly, I don’t have good news on that front,” Mari told them frankly. “The Kazekage apparently carefully picked who would come. They’re mostly people fiercely loyal to him who hate the other villages and believe this invasion will establish us as the most powerful village.”

“So the worst type for us to convince,” Iruka summed up. “Great, even after death that man is making things difficult.”

Mari snorted, “Honestly I feel like our best bet would be to not reveal that the Kazekage was dead. If we could somehow convince them that the imposter is an imposter but that the real Kazekage is still alive and that acpturing the imposter is our best chance of finding him alive, they might listen. Then their loyalty to the Kazekage and the village might win out over their desire to see Sand ascend in power. But we need to think up a different reason for how we know the imposter is a fake. No offense to Iruka, but they wouldn’t believe a word he said and would probably think it was all a plot to overthrow the Kazekage.” Iruka just shrugged. It was no secret that he and the Kazekage did not get along. Nor did it surprise him that many Sand shinobi didn’t trust him. “And it needs to be incredibly convincing. It sounds pretty unbelievable from the outside.” That was true. Iruka barely believed it, even being able to sense the differences in chakra to confirm the switch. They needed to convince everyone that the Kazekage, the strongest fighter in the village, had been overpowered and then replaced with no one noticing. They were definitely not telling anyone their suspicions of the Kazekage initially working with the imposter because that would just get too confusing.

“Scorpion, you’ll need to be the one who discovered the imposter,” Mari continued. “Iruka’s obviously out. I’m also rather infamous for not getting along with the Kazekage and most people think Baki had been corrupted from being around Iruka too much. Scorpion is the only one people might actually believe.”

“But how do we spread the information to the right people without the imposters finding out?” Baki asked.

“Leave that to me,” Mari assured them. “I’ve identified several jonin instructors who would be more willing to hear us out. I’ll start with them. Scorpion, I’ll let you know when you need to show up and tell the story.”

“Alright,” Scorpion agreed. “I think for simplicity’s sake, we should keep it as close to what happened as possible. Less chance of anyone being able to disprove it that way. I’ll say I noticed a disturbance on our way to Leaf. I knew the Kazekage had headed that way, so I went to make sure everything was alright. I heard sounds of combat but by the time I reached the area, only one figure remained. I believed it was the Kazekage and drew back, since he had asked his anbu guards not to follow him when he left. However, I grew suspicious when the Kazekage never reported the attack and then I started noticing strange behavior. I’ll also say I did not see any bodies nearby, so it is possible that the real Kazekage was restrained by allies of the imposter.”

“It’s a good story, the only problem is the other anbu guards,” Baki commented. “Will they be able to disprove it?”

“No, the Kazekage truly did ask us not to follow him that night,” Scorpion explained. “And shortly after he left, I did a sweep of the surrounding area. I did end up wondering fairly close to where Iruka indicated the fighting happened, although not at quite the right time. But it was close enough that even if one of our sensor’s was tracking me, even they could not affirmatively disprove the story.”

“And it’s vague enough that we can adjust it as needed later on,” Iruka commented.

“Okay, so we have that part of the plan settled. Have you two had any luck identifying the imposter?” Mari asked Baki and Iruka.

“No,” Baki admitted. “Everything we come up with would either take too long or make people too suspicious.”

“Well keep working on it. And if you end up in a situation where you need to make a quick decision on a risky idea, do what you think is best. We trust you,” Scorpion told them. Mari nodded. “I will take my leave. My next shift begins soon. I’ll let you know if the current imposter does anything unusual.” 

Scorpion disappeared out the window while Baki, Iruka, and Mari continued making medicines. After an hour or so more, Mari also decided to leave. “Good luck to you and let’s hope everything turns out alright.” She waved good-bye and left, nearly running into a Leaf shinobi on her way out. 

“Is Baki here?” the Leaf shinobi, who Iruka figured was part of Kiba’s clan given her tattoos and the three dogs following her, asked.

“Yes, please come in,” Iruka said, stepping back and waving her inside.

“Thanks, I won’t stay long. I wanted to let you know that your team passed the first round and is currently entering the second stage of the exams,” she told them.

“Thank you for letting us know,” Baki told her. Iruka smiled, proud that his kids were progressing.

“No problem. I needed to track you down anyway,” the Leaf shinobi explained.

“Oh, what can we help you with?” Baki asked.

“My name is Hana Inuzuka, I’m Kiba’s big sister,” she introduced herself. “These are the Haimaru Brothers. Kiba would not shut up about how cool he thought they two of you were even since you had him over for dinner. Plus Kuromaru liked you, which is not something that can be said of many people when he first meets them. So Mom was wondering if you were willing to have dinner with us tonight? Don’t feel obligated or anything, she just wants to get to know you a little better.”

Iruka had always been suspicious when things started going just the way he wanted them to. It either meant someone (usually the Kazekage) was trying to lull him into a false sense of security or that something terrible would happen in the new future. However, looking at Hana’s face, he did not feel like this invitation was a trap or would end up hurting them. If the rest of the clan was anything like Kiba, trickery was not their preferred method of accomplishing their goals. And if it was genuine, having an in with a Leaf clan could be very useful going forward. He glanced over and Baki who seemed to be waiting on his decision and nodded.

“We gladly accept,” Baki told Hana. 

“Great, I’ll come by and get you in a few hours,” Hana told them. “While I’m sure you could find our clan compound, it will be easier if you come in with me at least the first time you visit.” 

They agreed and Hana left with the Haimaru Brothers following after her.

Iruka went to make tea and took note of the familiar (and annoying) presence that had settled a few roofs over. Did Kakashi think he was that good that no one would notice him? While Iruka would like to correct his assumptions, deluding the man into thinking Iruka didn’t notice his spying was necessary for now. 

“I wonder if they both take after their mother,” he commented to Baki, setting the tea and snacks he had grabbed on the table. “They look quite similar.”

“They do,” Baki agreed. “Although I have not seen enough of their clan to make accurate comparisons.” Iruka nodded, scribbling something on a stray piece of paper and sliding it over to Baki. While he could just put up his silencing seals, he wasn’t going to let the opportunity to mess with Kakashi pass him by. Of course, what he had written on the paper was meaningless, the real conversations was occurring with the hand signs Baki and he were doing solely with the fingers grasped around their teacups and out of sight of the window. 

‘Information?’ 

‘Not tonight, I want to get a feel for them first,’ Iruka replied while saying aloud, “I wonder how many teams passed the first round.”

‘Understood,’ Baki signed. “That I do not know. I’m sure Maki’s team made it through or she would have already burst in to complain.”

Iruka laughed, “Agreed. I’m sure she wants to bring good news back to Pakura.” The paper had been passed back and forth several times during their exchanges. At this point, Baki had given up making it look like any sort of code and had just started drawing Akamaru. It was a pretty good sketch. Iruka was half tempted to leave it for Kakashi to find just to see what nefarious schemes he would think they were planning with it. But that would be too obvious. He decided to burn it over the kitchen sink instead once their conversation was completed. 

“I wonder how Pakura is doing,” Baki commented. “You know how much she hates paperwork, I can’t imagine she would enjoy being the one left in charge of the village.”

Iruka laughed, “Oh, I know but I think she’ll be alright. As long as she gets some good assistants who aren’t afraid to yell at her to do her work instead of sneaking out to train, she should be alright.”

“True enough. I definitely feel safe leaving the village in her hands,” Baki replied. Iruka nodded, knowing they were talking about far more than Pakura’s temporary appointment. After all, the Kazekage was dead and the village would need a new leader. He would leave plotting what to do after the imposter was revealed until later since so much would depend on the circumstances of the reveal and how far the invasion plan went. They would need to figure out how to manipulate the discovery of the Kazekage’s body so it looked like the story Scorpion told was true and how to smooth over relations with other villages while not appearing weak after it was revealed that they were planning to invade Leaf apparently on the orders of an imposter. But one thing that Iruka was sure of was that Pakura needed to be the person to take the role of the Kazekage. She was strong enough to withstand pretty much anything but was much more willing to listen to others and change her course of action that the old Kazekage had been. She was respected by Sand and feared by the other villages. She would be just who they needed. Of course, she would not want to take the job, always preferring to be taking on dangerous missions, but Iruka was pretty sure that if he promised to handle most of the paperwork, she could be persuaded to take the hat. She had certainly expressed frustration to him over the years that even as high-ranking as she was, she couldn’t fix many of the problems in the village. So being the Kazekage would suit her, once she got used to it. But convincing her of that would come later. Currently they had potential allies to evaluate. 

Baki and Iruka spent the hours before Hana came back just staying in the apartment, tidying up and having actual casual conversations. Iruka was sure it had the added bonus of driving Kakashi, who was still spying on them, crazy. It made him giggle to think how frustrated the man must be feeling, convinced that he and Baki were plotting something (which admittedly they were) and that he was close to discovering what it was (which he was not). 

Baki had just finished up sharpening all his kuani and Iruka had just laid out the new batch of seal to dry when they heard a knock on the door. Baki opened it to admit Hana again.

“Good evening, are you ready to go?” she asked. Iruka and Baki nodded and the three of them plus the Haimaru Brothers set off. 

“How have you found Leaf?’ she asked as they walked together.

“We’ve enjoyed our stay here,” Iruka replied. “The market near our apartment is quite nice and we’ve been able to try some foods that aren’t available in Sand.”

“I’m glad. I’m not much of a cook myself, although Mom sometimes enjoys it. She complains that neither Kiba or I really take much initiative with it. We’ll help when she asks but other than that, we don’t really care what we eat as long as there is a lot of meat,” Hana told him. Given the number of times Kiba had reached over and grabbed meat from one of his friend’s bowls if they weren’t eating it fast enough when Kiba had been at their apartment, Iruka was not surprised by Hana’s description of their tastes. 

“Hey, Juro, Shiromaru” Hana greeted the man and ninken at the gate, “These are Iruka and Baki, the visitors from Sand that Mom invited over.

Juro nodded at the two of them while Shiromaru watched them silently, “Pleased to meet you. The clan leader told me to send you right in. She’s looking forward to meeting you.” As they followed Hana inside the clan compound, Iruka tried to remember if Kiba had ever mentioned he was the son of the clan head. He was pretty sure he would remember if he had. While this meant their host would be very well-situated to provide them with information if they decided to ask her about the imposter, it also meant they needed to be even more careful than originally planned. She would be analyzing them not merely as a shinobi of Leaf and parent but as a clan head who was used to dealing with threats to the village. 

“Hey, Mom, I’m back and I brought Iruka and Baki,” Hana yelled out as soon as they entered the house. 

The women who stuck her head around the doorway confirmed their earlier speculation that Kiba and Hana both took after their mother. “Welcome, I’m Tsume, good to finally meet you.” She walked closer and reached out to gently smack Hana on the back of the head, “And you, do you have to yell the minute you’re in the house when we have guests over? Didn’t I teach you any manners?”

“No,” Hana replied, grinning. Iruka got the sense this was an established routine. “Kuromaru did and he never forbad yelling in the house. Given this family, it’s the only way you’re going to hear anything half the time.” Hana then wandered off, saying she needed to wash up.

Tsume sighed and muttered something under her breath about no respect all while smiling. It was relaxing to see them interact. It gave Iruka hope that this dinner would turn out well.

“I’m just finishing up in the kitchen, make yourselves at home in the dining room,” Tsume told them. Iruka hesitated for a second, wanting to offer help but not sure if that would be taken as an insult or something.

Kuromaru settled that question for him, padding out of the kitchen to nudge Iruka’s hip with his head. “Best do what she says. She’s gotten everything handled and at this point more hands in the kitchen would just throw her off.” Iruka listened and followed Baki into the dining room. He had to smile at how the room was arranged. There was a round table in the center, with various mats surrounding it. It was clear that the room was designed for the comfort of both the humans and ninken inhabitants. “Hana told us that your kids passed the first round of the exams, congratulations,” Kuromaru said.

“Thank you, I’m guessing Kiba’s team did as well?” Iruka replied.

“Yes, they did,” Kuromaru responded. “All of the Leaf teams cleared the first round.”

“Impressive, I’m not sure how other Sand teams fared. The kids are close with another genin named Maki, and we’re pretty sure her team passed but we have not heard anything about the other teams,” Baki said. Iruka felt bad, but he honestly wasn’t even sure how many Sand teams had entered the exams. He had been so caught up in dealing with the imposter and the invasion plan that he hadn’t really taken the time to get to know the other teams. 

Hana and the Haimaru Brothers entered and the room and Tsume followed with the food soon afterwards. She settled the dishes on the table, then went back to get meat for the ninken and set it on a dish on the floor. Iruka hesitated, not quite sure what the protocol was here. Tsume rolled her eyes and started passing dishes around the table. “Eat up,” she instructed everyone. “I didn’t spend hours cooking just for it to go to waste.

Hana laughed, “If you spent hours cooking it’s because you were worrying about Kiba and wanted to take your mind off of it. You’re usually perfectly happy to throw random ingredients in a stir-fry and call it good.”

Tsume threw a roll at her head, which Hana caught with ease, “I’m going to tell Haru that you volunteered for overnight shifts for the next month."

Hana did not look concerned, “She’ll never believe you. Anyway putting one person on that many overnight shifts in a row is against policy since they won’t be performing their best. I work at the veterinary clinic,” she explained to Baki and Iruka. “We like to have at least one worker present at all times since you never know when someone will come back from a mission with a ninken who needs immediate medical help. While it’s not technically under our clan’s control, all of the people who work there are Inuzuka and almost everyone who needs our services is from the our clan as well.”

“Kakashi’s brought his ninken in a few times, hasn’t he?” Tsume asked, although she got distracted from Hana’s response to laugh at whatever look had flashed across Iruka’s face. “I heard you’ve had some run-ins with him. Not a fan?”

“I’ve heard he is very skilled,” Iruka started.

Tsume rolled her eyes, “Yes, yes the Copy-nin, blah, blah. I can tell you are dying to trash talk him so let’s hear it.”

Iruka was surprised, he was usually pretty good at hiding his feelings when he wanted to. He almost wanted to divert the conversation, but then he considered what he had seen from Tsume and Hana so far, as well as Kiba. He didn’t think they were trying to trick him, they just seemed honestly curious, and in Tsume’s case, entertained. And he had been dying to destroy Kakashi (verbally, although he wouldn’t pass up on an opportunity to punch him if he got the chance) since he met the man. “He seems to be quite impressed with his own skills and not able to appreciate others with different skill sets. He does not seem to care about his kids. Naruto and Sasuke obviously need to process everything that has happened to them, but don’t feel comfortable going to him. He’s not nearly as subtle and good at surveillance as he thinks he is and his priorities are completely screwed up. And what jonin instructor goes around reading those books in front of his genin? Sakura’s chakra control is amazing and he should be helping her find the best way to harness that instead of giving her the same exercises as two chakra powerhouses,” Iruka realized that his rant was not at all organized, with him jumping back and forth between topics, but having gotten the license to complain about Kakashi, he just let everything out at once.

“Wow, he really pissed you off, didn’t he?” Tsume continued to sound amused, not at all minding that Iruka had talked about another shinobi from her village like that. “I can see why the two of you don’t get along. You have completely different skill sets and outlooks on life.”

“What do you mean by that?” Baki asked. 

Tsume grinned, “Iruka, you’ve managed to basically take custody of the Kazekage’s kids from him, while still being under his command. You must know exactly how far you can push and what you need to say to get him to give you what you want, right?” Iruka nodded, not quite sure where she was going with this. “Kiba mentioned you’re a seals expert, but I can’t imagine you specialize in combat. I have no doubt you can do it, and much better than most people looking at you would assume, but your focus is on avoiding direct combat as much as possible. Am I correct?” Iruka nodded again, intrigued by how she knew so much about him in such a short time. “So you’re good with people, emotionally intelligent, and focus more on stealth and traps than outright combat. Kakashi is the exact opposite. He is one of, if not the, most powerful shinobi in the village and so almost all his missions are combat heavy. I’d say he has the emotional intelligence of a rock, but that might be giving him too much credit. Unlike a rock, he usually manages to make situations worse when he tries to comfort people. Sure, he can manipulate people if it is necessary for a mission, but he doesn’t know how to help them piece themselves back together. He’s barely holding himself together as is. You think of him arrogant, he thinks of you as weak.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “putting him in charge of a genin team by himself was a huge mistake. I told the Hokage that, but he refused to listen.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Iruka asked.

“Because from what Kuromaru told me, you’ve already gotten attached to those kids of his and I think you could help them in ways Kakashi never could. But convincing him to let you will be no easy task. He doesn’t trust you and you don’t trust him. I’m not saying you have to like him or that you are wrong to be upset about how he has treated his team, but I’m hoping you can at least see where he is coming from.” Iruka contemplated what she had said. He wanted to be part of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura’s lives going forward, both for Gaara’s sake and because he did honestly care about them. And he could see how constantly fighting with Kakashi would not be conducive to that goal. He did not want to make the kids feel worried and like they couldn’t care about both him and Kakashi. Because that was the most infuriating part to Iruka-those three clearly cared about Kakashi when it did not appear like Kakashi returned the sentiment. “He does care about them,” Tsume said, like she was reading his thoughts. “I can smell it on him.” Iruka was not quite sure if that was just an Inuzuka expression or if they could actually smell that type of thing. He really needed to find out more about their clan’s abilities. They were fascinating.

“I’ll think about what you said,” Iruka promised. He couldn’t commit to anything more than that right now. He needed time to replay his interactions with Kakashi and see if he had missed something. He might also want to force a meeting with the man to see what he was like when the kids were not right there.

“I can’t ask for more than that,” Tsume said. “So, Baki, you got any good stories from wrangling those kids for months?” Baki launched into the story of the first time Temari had tried riding on her fan and ended up crashing into three buildings and knocking over six people, including one of the elders of the village. Which gave Iruka time to think over what just happened. He was very glad they had come tonight. Even if Iruka never ended up being able to get along with Kakashi, he had learned something important from Tsume’s intervention: that she did honestly care about Naruto and the others. She interfered not for Kakashi, but because she wanted what was best for the kids. She was not afraid of telling her village leader if she disagreed with him either. And she trusted and liked Iruka and Baki enough to invite them over for dinner. She might be willing to hear them out and not immediately inform the rest of Leaf about what they said. And she would have a good chance of knowing who the imposter is if they really were someone with a grudge against Leaf. He would have to discuss it with Baki later that night, but he felt like telling her was probably the best way forward. They were running out of time and needed information and allies.

The rest of the evening was enjoyable. They swapped stories back and forth, Iruka describing the first prank his kids had ever pulled and Hana responding with tales of some of the trouble she and Kiba had gotten into (with Kuromaru chiming in every so often to correct every so often). Hearing how much Naruto loved to help out with the new puppies made Iruka smile. But they did have to get back. Not that they had a formal curfew, but staying out late in a foreign village was just inviting trouble.

“Thank you for having us over,” Iruka said as they were leaving. “It was a very enjoyable evening.”

Tsume laughed, “I enjoyed myself as well. It’s nice to just be able to talk about your kids with someone who understands the amount of chaos they bring. Are you busy tomorrow night?”

Iruka glanced at Baki, who shook his head, before responding, “Not at all.”

“You’re welcome to come over again, if you’re up for it,” Tsume invited.

“We would be happy to,” Baki told her.

“Great, just come over around six. I’ll tell whoever’s on guard duty to expect you.” 

There was not much conversation on the way back, since both Baki and Iruka were tired from the long day. They collapsed into their beds, agreeing to put off talking about their next step until the next morning.

“You want to tell Tsume,” Baki commented, as they sat at the table and drank their tea. Iruka’s silencing seals were firmly in place, much to the annoyance of their persistent watcher. (Iruka may have said he would try and get along with Kakashi for the kids’ sake, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t continue to annoy the man for now. Really, he should have figured out by this point that lurking on rooftops was not the best way to get information.)

“I do,” Iruka replied. “I know it’s a risk but I just can’t see another way to get information. And out of everyone we’ve met here so far, Tsume seems like she is the most likely to hear us out.”

Baki nodded, “I agree with you. Tonight then?”

“Tonight,” Iruka agreed. While it was tempting to spend the rest of the day plotting how best to describe the situation to Tsume, Iruka felt that would actually hurt their chances of getting her to help them. She would see right through a neatly rehearsed explanation, and know they were keeping things back, which would undermine their goal of getting her to trust them. So they made a bullet-point list of what information they needed to get across and then spent the rest of the day trying to distract themselves.

Before they left for dinner, they put a coded message in the hiding spot they had agreed upon with Mari and Scorpion. That way, if things went badly and they were killed or captured by Leaf tonight, their co-conspirators would know what had happened and hopefully be able to at least get the kids out safely.

“You ready?” Baki asked as they headed towards the door.

“Not at all, but that has never stopped me before,” Iruka replied.

Baki laughed, “True enough. Let’s go then.”

They found their way back to the Inuzuka compound without much difficulty and the guard outside waved them in without any question. Dinner proceeded similarly to the previous night, with all of them sharing various stories of their kids. Once everyone had finished eating, Iruka knew he needed to bring up the topic. But how could he ask Hana and the Haimaru Brothers to leave without raising their suspicions? While he had no doubt Tsume would tell her daughter, it would be better for their discussion if they could be alone with Tsume and Kuromaru.

“Alright, Hana, go check in with whatever poor soul is doing inventory in the veterinary clinic tonight,” Tsume ordered. Hana and the Haimaru Brothers left quickly after bidding good-bye to Baki and Iruka. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about?” When Iruka’s head jerked up, she laughed, “I can smell the nerves rolling off you, although you both manage to keep up the act rather convincingly. I’m guessing whatever it is somehow involves you kids or you wouldn’t be this worried. 

“You’re right,” Iruka admitted. “Before we begin, I ask that you hear us out until the end. What we have to tell you will sound rather fantastical at first and will undoubtedly concern you. Despite that, please let us explain everything before making any judgments or taking any action.”

Tsume raised her eyebrow, “An interesting request. But given how Kuromaru and my kids respond to you, I think you’ve earned enough trust for me to agree to that.”

“Thank you,” Iruka said. He glanced at Baki, took a deep breath in. There would be no taking this back but it needed to be done. And even if it failed, he felt confident they had done everything they could. Now it was all up to her. “It started when the Kazekage called me to his office a few months before the exams…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are moving along! We are finally letting people outside the original four know about the imposter.
> 
> I know that in canon, one of Orochimaru's subordinate probably took over pretending to be the Kazekage while Orochimaru was destroying children's lives in the exams like how I had it go down here, but I like to imagine that Orochimaru just kind of fucked off without really explaining anything and the Sand anbus and staff just had to make increasingly more wild excuses of why the Kazekage could not meet with x person at the moment.
> 
> The next chapter will be interesting. We are finally getting the preliminary fights for the third round, and if you can't tell from how I write fight scenes, I don't like writing straight combat scenes, preferring instead to focus on how the characters use their surroundings to their advantage and such. Which is impossible to do when it's one-on-one fights in an arena. So we'll see how I end up writing those.


	10. Chapter 10

“They passed the second stage,” Baki burst into the apartment, yelling out the good news. 

“Good, I knew they could do it. Are they proceeding to the third round immediately?” Iruka replied.

“Well, given the number of participants that passed the second stage, they are actually having one-on-one run-off matches to determine who will make it to the third round,” Baki explained. “Which should be starting in about an hour, so let’s go.”

Iruka let Baki drag him out of the apartment, feeling rather bemused. “Am I allowed to tag along?”

“Probably not,” Baki replied honestly. “The Leaf shinobi said for the jonin teachers of the teams that have made it this far to come, but if anyone makes a fuss, we’ll just claim we have an unstable jinchuriki and you are the best at calming him down. I’m sure they’ll decide that they can bend the rules this time rather than risk Gaara murdering someone.” Iruka figured Baki was right. Although Gaara really did have marvelous control these days, his past reputation was not easily forgotten and the fact that he had a tendency to speak out loud to Shukaku regardless of who was around certainly did not help. 

While Iruka did not like using Gaara in this way, since his goal was to get the village to accept and appreciate Gaara, Gaara honestly did not seem to mind them playing up his reputation and it did come in useful in some situations. When Iruka had asked him about it, he shrugged and said, “Why should I care about what they think? You and everyone I care about know the truth.”

Sure enough, when they reached the building Baki had been directed to, the Leaf shinobi had looked at Iruka and Baki, looked down at his list, seen what team they were there for, and let them pass without comment. “They should be coming out anytime now,” Baki told Iruka as they waited in a large room. “No other teams from Sand passed the second stage.” Iruka had a mental note to check in with Maki after this preliminary stage was completed. He was sure she would be disappointed and wanted to make sure she was not being too hard on herself for not passing. Glancing around, Iruka locked eyes with Kakashi and sent the man his falsest pleasant smile before the jonin turned back to his porn book. He recognized Kurenai from Kiba’s description of his team leader and also spotted Gai, who gave him a happy thumbs up and then went back to chatting at Kakashi. 

Iruka got a few evaluating glances but no one said anything to him, so he was content to ignore them. A few minutes later, a Leaf shinobi called for their attention, “Seven teams passed the second stage. Given the format of the third round, we need to cut the number of people still remaining before we reach that stage. We have decided to hold one-on-one matches now. Your teams will be entering the building in the next few minutes. You will have 30 minutes with them before the matches begin. You may watch the matches but not interfere, is that understood?” Everyone agreed and the speaker left to fetch the teams. 

Iruka had meant to watch the other participants, to see if anyone of them might be connected to the imposter, but the minute he saw his kids, he couldn’t focus on anything else. They looked fine, he noted as they filed in with the other genin. No obvious injuries and they didn’t look sleep-deprived or hungry. That was the extent of what he was able to see before Gaara caught sight of him and threw himself at Iruka for a hug that Iruka gladly gave. Temari and Kankuro followed shortly behind. Iruka held them for a while before stepping back so he could get a better look at them, “How did it go? Are you hurt? I’m so proud of you. Have you eaten?”

Gaara had reattached himself to Iruka after letting him examine them for injuries for a bit and didn’t reply. Kankuro laughed while Temari rolled her eyes, “We’re fine, we promise. The first stage was just a written test which we could easily cheat at. In the second stage, we were able to accomplish the objective by setting a trap for another team and then trading with Kiba and Shino’s team for what we needed.” Iruka would have to get more information on both stages later and give the kids a chance to brag about what they had accomplished, but right now they had the preliminary third round to focus on. “And you finished early, so we’ve been resting in the tower for the past few days. None of us are injured,” Temari finished her report. Iruka could tell there was something more she wanted to say, but given how her eyes kept flickering around, he guessed she was wary of being overheard.

Luckily that didn’t remain a problem for long. Baki was able to subtly herd them into a corner, slightly away from the other teams. Temari pulled Iruka close and signaled for him to put up his silencing seals just around the two of them. Kankuro had started giving Baki an in-depth account of the second stage, so hopefully no one would notice what they were really doing.

“Sasuke is hurt,” Temari told him seriously. “I don’t know what all happened, since I heard about it third-hand and was not able to confirm anything with them since their team barely arrived in time, but I think his opponent put some kind of seal which sent him into a temporary coma.”

“Who did you get this information from?” Iruka asked. 

“Kiba told me and he learned about it from Ino, who was there when Sasuke woke up but not for the actual fight,” Temari told him. 

“Thank you for telling me. I’ll see what I can do. Try not to worry anymore about it. You need to focus on the next round,” Iruka instructed. He took down the seals and looked around for Sasuke. When he couldn’t find him, he next looked for Kakashi, who he also couldn’t locate. He did Sakura and Naruto, but they were with Lee, Tenten, and a blond girl Iruka guessed was Ino. Sakura glanced up and met his gaze. Her eyes slid to the door to her left and then back at Iruka. He nodded his thanks and quietly excused himself from his kids, trying his best not to call attention to himself as he made his way to the door Sakura had indicated. He did not know what kind of seal would knock someone out for hours, but he guessed that was not the end of its negative effects. It would need to be dealt with sooner rather than later in order to mitigate its harm on Sasuke.

It was easy to find Sasuke and Kakashi once they were away from the others. Iruka walked into the room just as Kakashi was about to start whatever technique he planned on using to contain the seal. He instantly jerked away from Sasuke and turned to face Iruka as he entered the room. Iruka noted how Kakashi put his body between him and Sasuke. Tsume might be right about him caring more than he lets on, he thought. 

“I heard about what happened in the forest and wanted to offer my assistance,” he said evenly, not walking any closer just went. 

“We’re fine, thank you for the offer though,” Kakashi replied coolly. He made a motion like he was about to move towards Iruka when Sasuke pushed past him.

“You’re a seals master, right? You were able to fix Gaara’s seal when others couldn’t. Gaara mentioned it. So can you fix this?” he turned his back towards Iruka, letting him see the mark on his neck before Kakashi could stop him. 

“I will certainly try my best,” Iruka told him, moving slowly towards Sasuke. While Kakashi was definitely not happy and did not take his hand off the kunai in his thigh-holster, he did not try and stop Iruka either, which Iruka figured was the closest thing to permission from the man he was going to get. Iruka suppressed his urge to swear when he was able to get a better look at the mark. He instantly knew who had attacked Sasuke. That chakra signature couldn’t come from anyone else but the imposter. Orochimaru, if Tsume was correct. Iruka refocused on the mark itself. It wasn't quite a seal but it shared enough characteristics with one that he felt comfortable treating it like one. Iruka had dealt with some incredibly powerful seals in his life, most notably Gaara’s seal. But this was on a completely different level. At least Gaara’s seal only had one purpose and all the symbols were meant to accomplish that. This had multiple purposes despite the simplistic design. “The bad news is I will not be able to get rid of this right now,” Iruka told him honestly. “But I should be able to create a seal around it that will prevent it from activating or effecting you. Is that alright with you?”

“Yes,” Sasuke said without hesitation. 

“Alright. There will be some pressure around the mark as I do this. Let me know if it turns into a sharp pain. I also need you to promise me that if the mark ever starts hurting you in the future or you feel anything at all from it, you will notify me right away,” Iruka waited until Sasuke agreed before turning to Kakashi. “Would you mind telling me what you intended to do?” Iruka was not surprised with the technique he replied with, although he was a little surprised Kakashi was willing to tell Iruka anything at all. It was a brute force technique that required a significant amount of chakra and was meant to completely seal off the mark. But even with Kakashi’s power, Iruka doubted it would hold long if Sasuke accidentally activated the mark. 

“I’m going to try a different approach. This is an incredibly powerful seal. I cannot create something powerful enough to completely prevent its effects. What I can do is make it so Sasuke is not effected by it.”

“What do you mean?” Kakashi asked.

“You’re probably familiar with seals that allow something to be written in one book and appear in another one.” Kakashi nodded. “I’ve developed a seal that allows me to transfer chakra from one source to another. This marks contains a couple different sources of chakra. One of them is focused solely on making sure the mark is not removed while another is the chakra that will actually effect Sasuke. I cannot completely get rid of either source at the moment, but I can influence the flow of the second source. Essentially, when Sasuke inadvertently activates the seal-And I’m sure you will,” he digressed to tell Sasuke. “It is not a reflection on your abilities or strength, but the person who put this on you wants something from you and they can only get it by you activating the seal. So they likely made it easy to activate and might ever try to put you in situations that would force you to activate it. So when he activates it, instead of effecting him, the chakra that would have gone into his system will go to the object I have linked with the seal.”

“Do you have to be the one keeping the object?” Kakashi inquired. 

“No, I do not. However, I would at least need access to it,” Iruka replied.

“And why is that?”

“Because this is only a temporary measure,” Iruka said, exasperated. “I assume you want me to actually get rid of this instead of just mitigating its effects. It’s an incredibly invasive seal and I have no idea the extent to which it could affect Sasuke. Studying the transferred effects will give me a better idea of what I am dealing with and what techniques I can use to get rid of it. If I tried to remove it without knowing what it did, I could end up damaging Sasuke’s chakra pathways forever or even killing him. I don’t think that’s what you want, but correct me if I’m wrong.”

Kakashi jerked his head away from the staring match they had been in. “I would prefer that didn’t happen,” Sasuke cut it. 

Iruka laughed softly. “And I don’t want that to happen to you either. Are you alright with me putting the seal I explained on it for now and continuing to work on a complete cure? I can’t guarantee what will happen, but I haven’t had this seal fail before and I’m guessing you want to continue with the exams.”

Sasuke nodded solemnly. “You said the person who did this to me might try and put me in situations where I would be forced to activate it. A Sound team attacked us soon after the mark was placed on me and it didn’t seem like they were after our scroll. They might be working with whoever did this to me. They’re still in the exams. I need to protect my friends from them.”

Iruka slowly reached, telegraphing his movements, and patted Sasuke gently on the head. “It’s good that you want to protect your friends, but don’t be afraid to rely on us adults, alright? We’ll do our best to protect you all.” Sasuke surprisingly allowed the head pat for a few seconds before drawing back. “Alright, let’s do this,” Iruka said. “Kakashi, I’m going to need your help.”

“What do you need?” Kakashi questioned.

“To get this to work, we need to basically overload the mark. It only needs to be for a split second, but I don’t have enough chakra to even manage that. Can you help?” Iruka asked.

Kakashi looked at him for a long moment before his eyes flickered over to Sasuke. Whatever he saw apparently convinced him since he agreed to do it. Iruka got out one of his scrolls to be the object they were tying the seal to. It would be easy to carry without anyone getting suspicious, plus the long surface would give him a good look at the effects of the seal.

"Alright, is everyone ready?” Iruka asked. Both Sasuke and Kakashi nodded. Iruka drew up a barrier seal around them, so if things went terribly wrong it would not affect anyone else. “Once we start, we cannot stop without terrible consequences. So let’s get this done. Kakashi, can you stand on Sasuke’s other side?” Iruka gestured for Kakashi to stand slightly behind Sasuke, closer to the side that would not have the seal. While Kakshi still needed to see the mark to overload it, Iruka was the one doing the delicate work and needed maximum visibility.

“Sasuke, this shouldn’t take long, but try to remain as still as possible for us, will you?” Sasuke nodded, gripping one arm with his other hand. Iruka let himself ruffle his hair like he would do to his kids, “You’ve been very brave so far. Just hold on for a little while longer.” Iruka started drawing the necessary seal around the mark.

Iruka could feel Kakashi’s eyes on him, but he did not acknowledge them, focusing on giving Sasuke some reassurance and completing his task. Once Sasuke was as calm as he was going to be under the circumstances and the seal was complete, Iruka met Kakashi’s gaze. “I’m going to need you to throw as much chakra as possible at the seal the second I tell you to, understood?” Kakashi nodded. Iruka took a deep breath, made sure his ponytail was tight so no loose hair fell in his eyes at an inopportune moment, and reached for the essence of the mark. He never knew quite how to describe this feeling. Even other seal masters did not feel seals quite the way he did. He wondered if it was because of his sensing ability. Just like he could tell certain things about people based on their chakra, he could tell certain things about seals based on their structure and the chakra they give off. It was quite useful in figuring out how to nullify or alter seals. He pushed further into the seal, seeking the core of it. He wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, both for Sasuke’s sake and his own, since he hated being submerged in the feeling of this seal. And then he found it. “I’m going to count down from three and do what I told you to when I say go,” he told Kakashi. “Three, two, one, go.” Kakashi apparently had actually listened to Iruka for once and poured all the chakra he could into the mark at Iruka’s signal. It certainly wouldn’t have been enough to destroy the seal, but it was enough to weaken it just for a second, and that was all he needed. 

The seal would remain on Sasuke but all the effects Iruka would transfer with his seal. The mark very much did not want to do that and fought him every step of the way, but Iruka had not spent a lifetime perfecting his sealing techniques for nothing. He would not let himself be overpowered in this area. With one final push, Iruka was able to force the seal to transfer its effects. He promptly started putting every containment seal he knew on that scroll. He did not want to find out how much damage this kind of mark could do if it got loose. When he was finished with that, he looked up at Sasuke, “How are you feeling?”

“Alright,” he replied, reaching towards his neck. “Is it…?”

Iruka held up the scroll, “This should contain it. You might feel a slight tingle when you end up activating it, but it should not effect you beyond that. I would like to put a few seals around the mark on you as well, just to be safe. Would that be alright?”

Sasuke nodded and so Iruka put another containment seal on the mark, as well as one that would notify Iruka when it activated. “I’m sorry but that is all I can do for you right now. I’m going to need to do some more research and it would be helpful if I knew who placed that on you,” Iruka said. He already knew, but it wouldn't hurt to get verification.

“I don’t know who they are, they had disguised themselves as another participant. Ino said she got the impression of snakes when she looked into the mind of a member of the Sound team, who we think are allies with my attacker,” Sasuke told him, despite the protesting sound Kakashi made. “If I find out more, I’ll let you know.”

“I appreciate it,” Iruka told him honestly. “Now I think the preliminary rounds are starting soon so you should hurry back.” Sasuke nodded and ran out the door. 

Iruka held the scroll silently for a moment, but when Kakashi did not ask him for it, he shrugged, and put it away. Iruka turned to leave but then Kakashi stepped into his path. “Is there something you wanted?” he asked, trying not to scream. He was exhausted from wrangling that vile seal and just wanted to go see his kids. He did not have the time or inclination to pander to the ego of this jonin.

“Why?” Kakashi asked.

“Why what?” Iruka shot back, really not wanting to play this game.

“Why help Sasuke? Why invite so many of them over for dinner? Why share seal tips with Tenten or let Naruto help you in the kitchen even if it made the process more stressful for you?”

Iruka was tempted to give him a non-answer and walked away. But he couldn’t help but remember what Tsume had said a few nights ago. 

Once they had finished explaining the situation to her, being completely honest and trying to give her all the necessary information, she had stayed quiet for awhile, processing all that they said. Iruka and Baki had just started to grow nervous, glancing at each other and shifting in their seats when she finally spoke, “I can give you three weeks.”

“What?” Baki said.

“After the second round, the plan is to postpone the finals for a month in order to give the finalists time to prepare. You said the invasion is scheduled to take place on the same day as the third round, right?” Iruka nodded. “So I can give you three weeks to try and stop this disaster on your own before I need to tell the Hokage. A week should give us more than enough time to prepare to respond accordingly. I do like you two and I understand that you want to protect your kids and your village, but I will not risk the safety of my own village.”

“We understand,” Iruka said gently, because of course they did. That she was even giving them this much time was a minor miracle. 

“But do you let me know if I can do anything to help you,” Tsume instructed. “Depending on what it is and how big of a risk it would entail, I might be able to help you out.” Before Iruka could thank her for that, she continued, “As far as the identity of your imposter, there are not too many people it could be. I never liked your Kazekage, but he was a hell of a fighter and even with a sneak attack, he would be a hard person to kill. Iruka, you said the imposter’s chakra felt wrong somehow, can you elaborate on that?”

“It’s difficult to describe,” Iruka said. “It’s almost like they were messing with their own chakra for some purpose. And it felt slimy somehow, if that makes sense.”

“If someone was trying to find a way to become immortal and altered their chakra in ways to reach that goal, could that have produced what you felt?” Tsume asked.

“I suppose it’s possible, but the extent of the alterations they made in order to produce what I felt would have to be massive. Who would do such a thing?” Iruka wondered.

“Orochimaru.” Tsume replied firmly. “He’s obsessed with the idea of immortality and will do anything to achieve it. He uses snake summons, which could account for the slimy feeling. And he hates Leaf. Based on what you have told me, he’s the person who best fits the description. Plus, as much as I hate to say it, he is incredibly powerful and good at manipulating other strong people into joining him. He would be capable of killing the Kazekage in the way you described. I can look through our Bingo book and archives to see if anyone else matches the description, but I highly doubt it.”

Iruka only half heard what she said after she said the name Orochimaru. Of course he knew who the man was, everyone knew of the three Sannin. He just had never expected to have to fight one of them. He knew the imposter had to be powerful, but this was just too much. How were they going to take down Orochimaru? Their only chance would be sneak attacks, but those would be incredibly difficult to carry out when most of the Sand delegation thought Orochimaru was the Kazekage. Iruka knew they said it would be better to know the imposter’s identity so they could anticipate their skills, but he almost wanted to go back before this conversation because at least then he could fool himself into thinking that they would all somehow come out of this mess alright.

“Iruka, focus,” he heard Baki’s voice and suddenly jerked his head up. Baki stared back at him. “Are you ready to continue?” 

Iruka took a deep breath and brought himself back into the present. Right, Tsume had said she wasn’t one hundred percent sure, so they would need some way to verify the imposter’s identity before they relied on that information. But for now, they would work under the assumption that the imposter was Orochimaru. Iruka spared a moment to be glad that Baki didn’t ask him if he was alright or where his thoughts had gone. He needed to focus on what he could do at this moment or risk getting completely overwhelmed. “Tsume, would you know of a way to verify that the imposter is Orochimaru?”

“If any of our ninken can get a whiff of the imposter, they’ll be able to tell. We keep sealed bags of the clothes of any Leaf shinobi who becomes a missing nin so we can have our ninken memorize their scents. Orochimaru left tons of stuff behind when he abandoned the village, so getting his scent won’t be a problem. The issue will be getting close enough to verify his identity without him figuring out what is going on. While our ninken have the best noses in the village, even they would have difficulty locking in on a smell from a distance away in the village, with so many smells.”

“And Orochimaru knows our capabilities. If he sees an Inuzuka ninken nearby, he’ll either figure out that someone is on to him or just kill the ninken and their partner to keep his identity secret. I’m not risking any of my clans members if I don’t have to,” Tsume stated firmly. “So come up with a sufficiently safe plan and I’ll ask one of my kids to help you out with it. Are you alright with me telling them? They’ll be able to tell i’m stressed about something anyway.”

Iruka glanced at Baki although at this point they really didn’t have a choice. They had decided to trust Tsume and they would have to trust that she would only tell those necessary, “Yes, that would be fine. I’m sure they’ll understand the need to keep this quiet for now.” 

Tsume nodded, “I hate to say it, but we’re going to need another ally within Leaf. I’m pretty well respected and shouldn’t be accused of colluding with Sand or something, but you never know what that asshole Danzo is going to come up with. Honestly, Kakashi would be our best bet.” She held up her hand to stop Iruka’s protests. “I know he doesn’t trust you and the feeling is mutual, but no one would think he was working to overthrow the Hokage. If both of us put our word behind you, the elders and other clan-heads would have to listen to you. And I think he would be easier to convince than you believe. I know his constant spying is getting on your nerves, but try opening up to him a little bit. You might be surprised at how far it gets you.”

Iruka agreed to do his best and Baki and him left for the night. They had been back over to have dinner a couple more times and throw ideas about how to best carry out their plan of confirming the imposter’s identity. But Iruka had not had the chance to meet with Kakashi face-to-face until now despite the man’s constant lurking.

So Iruka decided to take another gamble and see where it got him, “My parents were killed by Gaara. They were trying to stabilize his seal, but things went wrong. My parents had fled from Mist to Sand and settled there, although they were never fully trusted by the village. I had no one to turn to after they died and so did the best I could. I was never the strongest fighter and fully expected to die on a mission early in life. I ended up surviving until the Kazekage pulled me into his office and told me I was now the caretaker of Gaara. Then I really expected to die, but figured I would do the best I could until it reached that point.”

“And then I met Gaara. He wasn’t the monster I had expected, but a scared child who didn’t understand what was happening to him and just trying to survive. I grew to care for him and him for me. We became the family that both of us had been missing. Temari and Kankuro soon joined us. I did the best I could to make sure they were safe and happy, but there were obvious limits on what I could do. The Kazekage might be hesitant to take Gaara away from me since I have greatly helped his control, but he would do it in a heartbeat if he thought I was disloyal to him. And I wouldn’t be strong enough to stop him.”

“Perhaps that’s what frustrates me about you,” he admitted. “You’re so strong and seem to have so much power in the village, but you don’t use it to get your students the help they need. Naruto craves stability and a parental figure. Sasuke desperately needs someone to talk to about what happened to him. I don't know what his goal is but I can see that pursuing it is slowly destroying him. Sakura would be a spectacular healer or even genjutsu user but you aren’t giving her exercises that would help her hone her chakra control.”

“So yes, I have them over for dinner because I can’t look at Naruto and not see Gaara. While I do believe everyone deserves a place where they feel safe and appreciated, I feel even more compelled to help Naruto because I know what it’s like to have to raise yourself. That plus the effects of having the village reject him, could have easily made him bitter and I would not blame him for it. But instead you can see how much Naruto cares and how much he craves validation. I know I don’t know the full story of what happened to Sasuke and probably never will, but anyone can see that he is struggling. He doesn’t know how to accept kindness, seeing it only as pity. Tenten and Lee raised themselves and Naruto as best they could, while striving for a goal most people told them they could never achieve. Sakura has not let the fact that she does not have the chakra reserves of her teammates stop her from finding a way to fight.”

Iruka laughed softly, “I’ve been accused of over-projecting on any stray child that I find, and maybe that’s accurate, but I can’t look at someone who is struggling with the same things me and my kids went through and not want to make things better for them in any way I can. I know that I can’t do much in the grand scheme of things and I am only in the village for a short time, but I want to believe I can make things a little easier for them while I am here. But at the end of the day, you’re the one who can really help them. You’re the one they admire, the one they want praise and guidance from. I don’t know you and I don’t know what you have been through or why you have chosen to teach them the way you have. I’m sure you have your reasons. But right now all I’m seeing is how those decisions affect your genin and it’s not a particularly flattering picture.”

“I do hope we can reach an understanding. I’m not going to stop inviting the kids over and I don’t want to put them in an awkward position. You’re welcome to join us next time. Now, if there’s nothing else, we should head back. The preliminaries will be starting any minute.” Iruka left, not glancing back or really giving Kakashi a chance to respond. He meant every word he said, but he was supposed to be getting the man on his side, not going off on him for his inability to take care of children. Maybe Kakashi would finally believe he did not have ulterior motives for befriending the Leaf genin or maybe he had ruined any chance of working together. Only time would tell. Besides, he knew he was correct about the allowed half hour being almost over and the kids would be disappointed if he missed one of their matches. 

He walked back into the main room and was about to go over to his kids and ask how the first two stages had gone, when he felt a chakra signature that he had become rather familiar with over the past few weeks. Forcing himself not to whip his head around, he walked over to his kids and smiled to let them know he was alright. Instead of asking them anything, he instead just let their conversation continue on and slowly turned to survey the room. He let his eyes rove over everyone, so it would just look like he was trying to get a read on the other participants, but he was really only looking for one person. And sure enough, as he focused on the team from Sound, he felt it. That chakra signature couldn’t be from anyone else but the imposter, Orochimaru most likely. Oh they were masking it better than they had before, leading further support to the idea that they would be easily recognizable by someone from Leaf, but that couldn’t fool Iruka’s technique. The imposter looked up and caught his gaze. Iruka gave him his best non-threatening smile and turned away. He was not too worried about the imposter figuring out Iruka was on to them. Very few people knew of Iruka’s ability and even if the imposter did suspect something, they probably wouldn’t feel threatened by Iruka and so would probably just ignore him.

A few minutes after he had returned, time was called and the referee started reading the rules. Iruka listened intently as they described the parameters of the elimination round. Given the space and what was necessary to win, he didn’t doubt that all three of his kids would advance, regardless of who their opponents were. Kankuro might have a little bit of difficulty, since the arena did not give him any place to hide and puppet freely, as he preferred to, but Iruka doubted any of the other genin had even encountered a puppeteer, so they would have no idea how to take advantage of or even recognize any weaknesses that resulted from the environment for Kankuro. Temari could overwhelm most opponents fairly easily, particularly in an enclosed space. And Gaara, of course, had never had a problem overpowering his opponents. Unless he was up against Naruto, he would have a clear advantage in terms of chakra reserves, and even then Gaara could work with Shukaku in a way Naruto clearly couldn’t with his bijuu. That the matches were selected as they went was interesting. Perhaps they wanted to see how the genin did when they did not have any extra time to gauge their opponent’s abilities. Unless they had encountered their opponent in the second round or knew each other before the exams, they would be going in blind. 

“The first match will be between,” the proctor turned to the board that was rapidly slipping through names until it stopped, “Dosu Kinuta and Ino Yamanaka.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really did plan on writing the first match of the prelims in this chapter but Iruka going off on Kakashi kind of took over. As you can tell, from the match-up, I'm doing a lot of changes with both who fights who and the order of the matches. 
> 
> I know Kakashi doesn't seal the Cursed Mark until after Sasuke's match in canon, but let's just pretend Leaf is slightly better at looking after its genin in this universe and gave him the opportunity before Sasuke had to fight. Hopefully my explanation of what Iruka did made sense. I have no idea if it's accurate to the way the Cursed Mark works, but eh.


	11. Ino

Ino spent most of their break before the preliminary third round getting Sakura to tell her about the rest of the second round went for her. She did this both to make sure no one else had attacked them and because she wanted to determine if the cursed seal had affected Sasuke at all. Sasuke himself had disappeared along with Kakashi. A Sand shinobi who she guessed was Iruka had followed them out. As much as Ino wanted to know what was happening out there, she knew she was needed here more. She needed as much information about what had happened in the forest as possible before she went to her father. While she had no doubt that the Sound team was a threat to the village and part of some larger plan, most villages would take exception to Leaf just grabbing a genin from another village and interrogating them, especially with Yamanaka techniques. So knew her father would believe her no matter what, but she needed to compile sufficient evidence of an imminent threat that would convince the other clan heads that action needed to be taken now, despite the potential negative repercussions on their relations with other villages.

Not that Sound itself would be a problem. It was a fairly new village and did not have much influence. But other villages would fear that the same thing would be done to their genin, so Leaf would need to have concrete evidence before they took the Sound team for questioning. If that failed, they could always just make them “disappear” and interrogate them anyway, but Ino figured the first option would be cleaner. After the preliminary round was done, she would interview everyone from Leaf who had been in the forest (even Neji, although she doubted he would be willing to tell her much) and see if they had encountered the Sound team. Hopefully that would provide her with enough to give her father a solid case to bring to the Hokage.

“We didn’t run into the Sound team for the rest of the exam,” Sakura told her. “The mark didn’t activate either, although Sasuke did seem more tired than usual. Do you think he’ll be alright?” Ino had not missed how Sakura had signaled the man who had to be Iruka a few minutes earlier. That was another thing she needed to look into. While everyone she talked to, even Tenten, was insistent that Iruka did not have any bad intentions, she was never one to take chances with the safety of her friends, so she would have to confirm his character somehow. 

Speaking of people she needed to keep an eye on, she glanced over to the Sound team. And then she paused. She remembered seeing that team before the first round started and she could have sworn that their jonin instructor had not been with them then. Maybe that wasn’t that unusual, but something about the man made her uncomfortable. And then she got a good look at his face and it clicked. 

She hadn’t been able to get much from her attempt to extract information from the minds of the Sound team, but she remembered that face. He didn’t look exactly the same as in the memories she had seen, but it was enough. That was the man who had told the Sound team to attack Sakura and Sasuke. 

She had only been able to get a small glimpse of him in the extracted memories, and she hadn’t mentioned when she reported the other information, just in case one of the Sound genin woke up and heard about it. The less she revealed that she knew, the less concerned their enemies would be. She had figured she would show her dad the memory later and see if he recognized the face. She had not expected the man who hurt her friends to further infiltrate the exams. 

However, now that she knew he was there, she would make sure he could not hurt anyone else. “Sakura, I have to go do something. Stay with Naruto, Lee, and Tenten, alright?” She pushed Sakura in that direction before hurrying towards Asuma. 

Usually she would take a moment to appreciate how terrified he looked to see her storming over to him, but she sadly had more important matters to deal with. She put her back to the Sound team so they couldn't read her lips and while she did not think any of them had any abilities that helped them eavesdrop, she kept her voice quiet. “I think the Sound team leader is a threat to the village. I can’t explain why right now, but could you keep an eye on him during this round?” 

Asuma stared at her and she meant his gaze squarely, desperately hoping he would trust her. She could maybe find another solution, but this would be the best option. Whatever Asuma saw in her eyes must have convinced him to believe her because he nodded seriously. “I will need a better explanation after this, but you’re rarely led us wrong before. I’ll keep him in my sights.” Ino grinned, relieved. With how much of a mess Asuma usually was, she sometimes forgot that he was an impressive jonin who had been one of the Twelve Guardians. And then he would say something like that in that tone of voice and she would instantly feel reassured. “Just focus on your battles, alright? I bet Kurenai that more of my genin would advance to the final round that hers, and I intend to win that bet.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have no intentions of losing to anyone,” Ino informed him.

Asuma grinned, “I figured that you’d say that. Just know I will hold that over your head until the next exams if you lose.” Ino made a rather rude hand gesture at him in response. Just then, the proctor called for all the genin to gather and for their jonin instructors to make their way to the upper level. Ino watched with satisfaction as Asuma followed the Sound jonin up the stairs. He stood far enough away that it wasn’t immediately obvious that he was keeping an eye on the Sound shinobi, but Ino had no doubt he chose a position that would allow him to always keep the target in his line of sight, even if it was just from the corner of his eye.

She drew her attention back to the board which was still flickering between names. And then it stopped. “The first match will be between,” the referee announced, “Dosu Kinuta and Ino Yamanaka. Everyone else please join your instructors on the balconies.”

Everyone complied, with most of her friends giving her an encouraging gesture or well wishes. And then it was just her, the proctor, and the Sound shinobi who had hurt her friends. 

Ino supposed out of everyone that could have been selected to go first, especially against one of those Sound assholes, she was glad it was her. She had often been told she was just like her father and while she hoped that wasn’t true in regards to his emotional outbursts, she knew much of her fighting style came from him. Most people outside her clan would think that all Yamanka fought the same way-distract opponent, do some mind jutsu, and win. While that certainly was a tried-and-true strategy for them, it wasn’t all they could do. And she didn’t mean just some of the jutsus her father had demonstrated for her that could affect multiple people at one time. When and how they used their jutsus were just as important as what jutsu they used. And Ino was rather adept at choosing the exact right moment to strike. She was no Shikamaru, but she liked to think she understood people a little better than her lazy friend and she was quite good at using her observations in battle. And she would admit that she had a tendency to hold grudges, especially towards those who hurt her friends. She would make him regret the day he tried to take advantage of her friends while they were recovering. 

“Begin,” the proctor yelled out, and the Sound genin immediately rushed towards her, swinging at her with his right arm. She was able to avoid the blow with ease but immediately retreated, knowing his true attack would hit her in a second. Sakura had mentioned how she had avoided all his blows but still felt nauseous and off-balance after his attack. And sure enough, she found herself having to drop to one knee because she simply couldn’t keep her feet under her. Surprisingly enough, he did not immediately rush over to launch a fall-up attack, but hung back, observing her reactions to his attack. So he not only had a dangerous attack, he’s also smart, Ino thought. This was not going to be a fun fight. But she knew she needed to end it as soon as possible. Dragging it out would only benefit him.

She forced herself to her feet. While so far in her training, she had mainly been taught offensive or communicative minds jutsus, she did know some techniques that essentially made the mind fool itself. Her clan weren’t in charge of interrogation for nothing. While some of that was just forcing information out of subjects, others required a more delicate approach. She knew ways to trick a person into thinking they were experiencing intense pain without touching them or make them see a friendly face. Of course, none of those were useful at this moment, since they required a fair bit of time, concentration, and the subject staying still. But techniques to fool the mind could be used on more than just her enemies. Ino could use a similar technique on herself to limit the effect the technique of the Sound genin had on her. It was pretty risky. She was essentially limiting the information her mind was processing from her body. She could get seriously injured and her body would be delayed in conveying that to her. But she just only needed to pull off one move and to do it, she needed to be able to keep her balance. 

She relished the look of surprise on her opponent’s face as she steadily rose and ran towards him, throwing a couple of kunai. He avoided them easily, but that was alright. It gave her enough time to close the distance before he could unleash another attack. She was never going to specialize in close combat but her best friend enjoyed it, so she practiced enough to make a decent sparring partner for Sakura. So the punch she threw was anything but weak. Not that it ever landed, but that was the point. Her opponent dodged and grabbed her outstretched arm, throwing her. And as she flipped through the air, she pulled her hands into the formation for one of the first clan jutsus her father had ever taught her-mind transfer jutsu. And sure enough, her opponent was still completing his follow through and did not even realize what she was doing until it was too late. She rushed into his mind, just in time to see her body fall to the floor. She was definitely going to have some bruises from that.

“I surrender,” she said, raising the Sound genin’s hand, just to make sure that the proctor would call the match.

He hesitated a moment before saying, “Ino Yamanka wins.”

She released the jutsu and returned to her own body, wincing. Yes, she would be feeling that for the next few days. She did not even attempt to stand, knowing that her mental block had come down and she was feeling the full effects of his jutsu.

The medical nin came out to check her over. They were able to greatly reduce the nausea and vertigo she was experiencing. She promised that she would check in with them if she was still feeling dizzy in a few hours, but refused any other help since she wanted to head back to the matches and see how her friends were fairing. Luckily they had not started the next match by the time she got back, although she was unsure what the delay was.

“Your opponent is not a very graceful loser,” Shikamaru commented. He and Choji were waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her and helped her get up to the second level. “He complained that you cheated.”

“Who does he think we are, samurai? There is no cheating in shinobi fights,” she said.

“That’s what we’ve been telling him. I think Sakura would have punched him for belittling your techniques if Kakashi hadn’t held her back,” Choji replied.

“Nice fight,” Asuma told her as they approached him. He was still situated in the same position as when she had left. Which meant they were standing only a few feet from the Sound team. The one she had defeated was glaring at her. She shot him what Shikamaru termed as her, “scary smile,” and he at least has enough sense to flinch back from that and drop her gaze. She wasn’t too worried about it. He wouldn’t dare try anything here and if he attacked her afterwards, she would not feel guilty at all about using some of her truly mean techniques. “I’ve never seen you practice that,” Asuma pointed out, obviously prodding for a reason.

“Well it’s a hard thing to practice,” Ino admitted. “I got the idea after seeing Tenten release several weapons scrolls while in the air. She helped me get used to moving in the air. And you know how most shinobi move past taijutsu fairly quickly and specialize in particular jutsus. Which means, when put in specific situations, most will revert back to the taijutsu basics they learned early on. Lee walked me through every taijutsu attack I could launch and how my opponent would likely respond. In the fight just now, I threw the kunai to distract him so by the time he saw me coming his options were limited. With how hard I threw that punch, it left me open to be knocked off balance and I figured he would take the opportunity to throw me. There are only a few basic throws we got taught at the academy, and I figured it would be the same for them, so I positioned my body so the best move would be for him to use my arm to flip me over. And before he even let go, I was already moving my hands into position.”

“I am going to work some more on the landing though,” she admitted. “Since I’m obviously not in control of my body when it hits the ground, I need to better position myself before I perform the switch. Lee helped me with that as well, but I’m still struggling with it.”

“Very impressive,” Asuma said. “When did you find the time to train a technique like that without me noticing?”

“Whenever you were off losing at shogi to Shikamaru or gave us the afternoon off training, I would find Lee and Tenten if they were in the village and ask them to help me. They said it was good training for them too and never minded helping me out. Sometimes Gai would tag along and offer advice, sometimes he let us go off on our own. It’s not like Neji cared whether his teammates were practicing with him or not.”

“It’s not that I didn’t trust you,” she assured Asami. He might not always know quite what to do as a jonin instructor, but she could tell he cared for them and would have helped if she had asked. “But honestly, how much could you have helped me with this?”

“You have a point,” he admitted. “Still if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to come to me.”

“I might take you up on that,” Ino said. “I do need a larger opponent to practice on and Gai is certainly not going to react like the average shinobi in a taijutsu match.”

She heard him mutter something about wondering what he had gotten himself into but he did not retract the offer.

Finally, everyone turned back towards the board and waited for it to settle on two names. “The next match will be between Sakura Haruno versus Yoroi Akado,” the proctor announced. Ino could tell Sakura was nervous, although she was trying not to show it. She waved at her friend to get her attention and gave her an encouraging smile. Naruto was yelling at Sakura to kick his ass while Sasuke’s encouragement had been subtle, just a hand clasped on her shoulder. 

When both of them had made their way into the arena, the proctor said, “Begin.”

Sakura immediately went on the offensive, throwing a series of punches and kicks. Ino could tell they were more designed to probe for weaknesses than do actual damage. It looked like it was going well for Sakura. Her opponent wasn’t necessarily bad at taijutsu but he had nothing on Lee or even Sasuke, against whom Sakura often practiced. Akado finally threw back a few punches of his own. Sakura was able to avoid each with ease. The closest he got to hitting her was brushing the end of her hair. And then something went wrong. Ino hadn’t seen him do any hand signs, but Sakura suddenly collapsed. She leaned forward over the railing, trying to see what was wrong. Luckily, Sakura’s opponent was stupid enough to explain what he had done. A technique that could sap chakra from someone just from touching them. Ino had never heard of such a thing and when she glanced over at Shikamaru, he shook his head. Ino had no doubt Sakura would figure out a way to win the fight, but there were larger implications of Akado possessing such a technique. He had not been in their class at the academy, and she did not think he had been in Lee and Tenten’s either. Which meant he was at least two years older than them. So he should have plenty of experience and he possessed a powerful technique. Why hadn’t he passed the exams far earlier? And one of his teammates had been the one who forfeited his place earlier. It was beginning to look like he had purposely failed in previous years for some reason. She supposed it could be that he was lazy or did not want to take on more dangerous missions, but she did not get that sense from him. Maybe she was just paranoid with what happened with the Sound team, but she feared that Akado was part of a larger plot. She resolved to ask around about him after the preliminaries were done. 

Meanwhile Sakura had gotten back on her feet and thrown several kunai at Akado, which he dodged with ease. She hung back for a little bit, throwing kunai and shuriken and dodging his strikes. Ino could tell she was thinking up a plan. 

Soon enough, she obviously reached a decision and stopped fighting defensively. She launched a series of punches at Akado, these ones definitely meant to cause damage. She was able to avoid all of his return strikes. Akado looked winded by the time Sakura retreated again, but he was not going to go down that easily. Before he had the chance to recover, Sakura quickly formed some hand signals. Ino laughed out loud as Sakura flashed through them, since she now knew what her friend was doing. Sure enough, the ground around Akado’s feet started crawling up his legs, locking him in place. Kiba had actually been the one who introduced them to that technique. He knew a surprising number of low-level earth jutsus. Apparently when he was getting underfoot and his mother thought he needed to burn off some excessive energy (so basically all the time), she would explain and demonstrate one for him and then turn him loose to practice it on his own until he was exhausted. Of course, Kiba had modified most of them to make them partner techniques with Akamaru, but he still remembered enough of the original to teach them. Ino appreciated it. It wasn’t that her father or Asuma wouldn’t have taught her if she asked, but both of them were so specialized at this point, they would probably be confused about why she was asking and honestly might not have been much help. While Ino loved her clan techniques, she also knew that there would be situations where they couldn’t come in useful or she was too tired or injured to use them. So she tried to learn as many techniques that didn’t require much chakra as possible, since you never know when they would come in useful. Ino and Sakura had spent multiple nights practicing these techniques together and it was fun to see Sakura use one of them in battle.

Sakura rushed forward to the spot where Akado was trapped. She got several hard punches and kicks in before Akado was able to break out of the earth that was holding him captive. Ino absentmindedly wondered why her friend hadn’t used a jutsu to end the match there, but she trusted Sakura had a plan and she couldn’t wait to see what her friend would do. Sakura didn’t seem too concerned about him breaking free. She abandoned her distance strategy and forced her opponent into a close-corridor taijutsu battle. Given Akado’s ability, that could have gone very poorly for her, but she was able to dodge every strike, so he couldn’t activate his ability. 

Until something went wrong. It looked like Sakura had miscalculated the amount of force she needed to put into her next punch and stumbled. Akado was on her in a second, pressing his hand to her arm. She was able to throw a wild punch that forced him to back away, but Ino could see how heavily she was breathing. She stumbled back a few steps and then collapsed. Akado confidently made his way towards, probably expecting to deal a final blow and end the match. 

However, Sakura had no intention of allowing that to happen. When he was about three feet from her, Ino saw her flash through another set of familiar hand signs. The ground beneath Akado’s feet suddenly moved, throwing him off balance. Before he could recover, Sakura had launched herself at him and brought him to the ground. She controlled their fall so she ended up kneeling behind him holding him in a chokehold with one hand. She used her other hand to strike away his arms that were desperately trying to touch her and drain her chakra. His movements became more and more erratic until his body finally went lax. Sakura held on for a couple more seconds, probably to make sure he was not faking it, but then she released him and let him drop to the floor. “Winner, Sakura Haruno,” the proctor announced. Ino cheered loudly and grinned as Sakura turned and smiled at her.

Asuma nudged her as Sakura tried to walk up the steps. Naruto and Sasuke had bounded over to help her and ended up basically carrying her up to the second level. “Go see if she’s alright. We can handle things here,” he murmured to her. Ino thanked him, told Choji and Shikamaru they better win their matches and then raced down the stairs and over to the opposite side before they could call out the next match up. Sakura was seated against the wall with Naruto leaning over her. Sasuke was standing a few feet back, but he also looked rather concerned. 

“For the fifth time, I'm fine, Naruto, just exhausted. He absorbed a significant amount of my chakra and I don’t have the insane chakra reserves that you do in the first place. Just let me rest and get something to eat and I’ll be fine soon. Unlike you, I have good sense and if I thought I needed a medic I would have gone to one,” Sakura chided Naruto as Ino approached. 

Ino let out a laugh, “Well I was going to ask if you were alright, but I guess you answered that question. That was a hell of a fight.”

Sakura smiled up at her, “Thanks. You were impressive as well.”

Ino took a seat next to her, “Thanks. Was the choke-hold always the plan or did you have to adjust as you went?”

“I knew I was going to have to take him down in some close-combat taijutsu technique from fairly early on, I just had to figure out which one would give me the most amount of control and ability to dodge his hands,” Sakura explained.

“He looked surprised that you were still fighting towards the end,” Ino commented. 

“Well, you know how he can take chakra? The first couple times I was powerless to do anything to prevent it, but by the third time I figured out a strategy. I still couldn’t stop it completely; however, I was able to basically hold some of my chakra out of his reach. It was exhausting, but I didn’t need to do it long,” Sakura said.

Ino threw an arm around her friend’s shoulders and patted her head, “Of course you’d figure out how to stop him. I doubt the rest of us could have done that.” Sakura blushed and stammered out something about how it wasn’t that impressive, but Ino elected to ignore her. Sakura’s chakra control had always been incredibly good. Ino hadn’t been giving false praise when she said Sakura was the only one who would have been able to defeat Akado’s technique in that way. One of these days she’d convince Sakura how powerful she truly was. To that end, she would keep giving her compliments. Plus Sakura’s reaction to them was so cute!

“The next match will be between Sasuke Uchiha and Shino Aburame,” she heard the referee announce. They all wished Sasuke luck as he walked towards the stairs, and gave the same well wishes to Shino as he followed him. 

“Help me up,” Sakura instructed her. “I want to see this.” Ino did as her friend asked and let Sakura lean on her as they walked to the railing. As much as Ino respected Shino’s abilities, she did not think this would be a long fight. Shino’s insects were powerful, but he did best in long-distance combat where he could hide and send his insects to attack undetected. Besides, Sasuke in particular had volunteered to help Shino develop his various types of insects and so knew most of his techniques. And while Shino was no slouch at taijutsu, Sasuke had the edge over him in that regard as well.

Shino seemed to have realized this was well since the minute they were told to begin, he sent out a swarm of his insects to surround Sasuke and drain his chakra. Sasuke promptly unleashed his fireball jutsu, destroying enough insects to escape from the middle of the swarm. He went on the offensive, throwing a series of punches and kicks that Shino was mainly able to dodge or block, although a few hit. Shino retreated and sent another wave of bugs at Sasuke. Again, he was able to burn a significant portion of them, although Ino could tell by his reaction that they had been able to drain some of his chakra. This cycle repeated a couple more times. Ino idly wondered if the fight continued like this if Sasuke would run out of chakra before Shino ran out of insects or vice versa. She knew ever since the fight with Mizuki when Shino had been unable to defend himself because he had run out of insects, Shino had spent a great deal of time and energy into cultivating more insects within his body so he did not run into that type of situation again. But Sasuke’s fire was probably the most dangerous technique to his insects and Sasuke had rather large chakra reserves. Nothing on Naruto, of course, but still. 

Sasuke apparently had been running through the same calculations because he decided to change the rhythm of the fight. This time, instead of releasing the fireball jutsu when he broke out of the swarm, he kept it burning and directed it towards Shino. His insects formed a wall in front of him to deflect the worst of the blast and Shino rolled backwards to escape the rest of it. Sasuke pressed his advantage, putting more force behind his taijutsu attacks than before and Ino thought they were quicker too. And then he seemed to vanish from the field. Shino jerked his head around, but he wasn’t able to see the attack coming. With a move Ino had seen many times before, although never from Sasuke, he reappeared crouched beneath Shino and kicked him into the air. From there, it was obvious who was going to win. Shino couldn’t protect himself with taijutsu and couldn’t command his insects fast enough to keep up Sasuke’s strikes. He landed hard and did not get up. “Winner, Sasuke Uchiha,” the proctor announced. 

Sasuke walked over to Shino and helped him to his feet. Ino couldn’t hear what they said to each, but neither seemed upset so she wasn’t too worried. As much as she didn’t like to think about it, given how Leaf genin had made it this far, it was unavoidable that some of them would have to knock their friends out of the exams.

Shino and Sasuke both let the medics check them over, although they both returned shortly. “It was a good fight,” she told them as the pair of them approached their group.

Both of them nodded. “Thank you,” Shino said before heading over to his team. Kiba threw his arm over his shoulder and Akamaru nuzzled against his legs while Hinata smiled softly at him.

“Congrats,” Sakura said to Sasuke. He nodded his thanks and stepped closer so she had another person to lean against. Ino smiled at him. She doubted Sakura would have agreed to sit down and miss any of the fights, so she appreciated the help.

“Sakura and I both won,” Sasuke said to Naruto, “so don’t embarrass us by losing here.”

Naruto sputtered and started yelling something about winning his fight in five seconds flat while Ino and Sakura glanced at each and rolled their eyes. Ino knew Sasuke could be sweet-she’d seen how he would curl up next to Naruto when the blond boy had a nightmare and how he would bodily put himself between Naruto and the disapproving gazes of the villagers. But when actually talking to Naruto, Sasuke seemed to be unable to convey emotions in any way other than rough teasing. 

“Looks like you’re going to have to wait to make good on your word,” Sasuke said, cutting Naruto’s rant off. Ino glanced at the board, which read Temari versus Zaku Abumi. 

“Well this should be interesting,” Sakura commented leaning forward. “I’ve been wanting to see what Temari is capable of.” Ino leaned forward as well. This was her chance to learn more about one of the Sand genin her friend was so taken with. While Sakura insisted they meant no harm, it was never too early to discover weaknesses in potential enemies. If the Sand team thought they could sweep in and take advantage of the kind natures of Ino’s friends, she’d show them otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First fights scenes of the prelims are here! Please let me know what you thought about keeping the whole chapter in Ino's perspective. I played around with switching povs for each fight, but thought this worked better. But if it didn't make sense to you or you didn't like, please let me know since I am still figuring out what to do with the next few chapters.
> 
> One of the many things that annoyed him in canon is how Ino's mind jutsus often aren't utilized because it's too risky if she misses. I feel like her clan would have worked on ways to work around that obvious weakness. So having to her seek help from Tenten and Lee to work out how to combine her jutsus with taijutsus moves was fun to imagine.
> 
> I feel like I kind of gave Shino the short end of the stick. I do think he is powerful, but fire is a quite dangerous against insects and close combat is not his speciality. 
> 
> Do the Sand siblings have a canon last name? I could not find one anywhere. For this au, I like to imagine they looked the Kazekage dead in the eye and turned in what forms they fill out to participate in the exams without a last name. Their plan is to wait until Rasa dies and then get Iruka to formally adopt them so they can have his last name. They have not told Iruka this yet. Baki can't wait to see his face when he finds out.


End file.
